ORNING AND EVENING 
EXERCISES 





Htlifi 



Isv. HEJNfRY WARD BEECHER. 



^y. BV413E 



ij&^M. 



UNITED STATES OP" AMERICA. 



% 



MORNING AND EVENING 
EXERCISES: 



SELECTED FROM THE PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED 
WRITINGS OF THE 

Kev. henry ward beecher. 



EDITED BY 

LYMAN ABBOTT, 

AUTHOR OF " JESUS OF NAZARETH," " OLD TESTAMENT SHADOWS," ETC. 



"There is no flower in all the field that owes so much to the sun as I do to Jesus 
Christ. That love which has redeemed my soul I would fain bear as an atmosphere, 
' Speaking the truth in love.' "— H. W. B. m 




NEW YORK: 

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
18 71. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Heney Waed Beecher's congregation is not confined to 
that which assembles within the walls of Plymouth Church. 
Alike in the parlors of the wealthy and the cultured, and in 
the log cabins of the poor and the self -exiled, his words are 
welcomed — a comfort to those in trouble, a solace to those in 
sickness, a strength to those in the midst of the battle. To 
this great congregation, counted by tens of thousands, who 
have profited by his teaching, though they have rarely or 
never listened to his voice, this volume is dedicated by 

TEE EDITOR. 

Cornwall Landing, December, 1870. 



PREFACE 



This volume, comprising morning and evening devotional 
readings for every day in the year, is composed wholly of 
selections from the published and unpublished writings of 
Henry Ward Beecher. The work is published with his ap- 
proval, though the selections were not made by him. In 
preparing it for the press, however, his thought has never 
been altered. The reader has Mr. Beecher's thoughts in his 
own words. The editor's work has consisted almost wholly 
in the selection of appropriate passages, and in the adapta- 
tion to them of Scripture and of poetry. 

A definite aim, never consciously departed from, has de- 
termined that selection. The book is one simply of devo- 
tional readings. Heartily accepting that catholic conception 
of religion of which Mr. Beecher is the most distinguished 
modern exponent, I have embraced in this volume a wider 
range of topics than is usually embraced in devotional liter- 
ature. Nothing has been inserted for its beauty of expres- 
sion or for its value as a statement or defense of doctrine ; 
but nothing has been omitted, as inappropriate to such a 
work, which could help the Christian in his warfare with the 
world and his daily walk with God. May the reader find in 
its perusal something of the spiritual strength which I have 
received from its preparation. L. A. 

Cornwall Landing, N» Y. 



MOENING AND EVENING 
DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES 



FROM THE WRITINGS OF THE 



Key. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 



MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JANUARY 1 : MORNING. 
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. — Lam. iii., 40. 

I can - not bear to go into the coming year just as I came out 
of the old one. I would fain believe each year to be a mother, 
and that I am born into the next one, that I may, as it were, 
with renewed childhood, go forward, endowed with the experi- 
ence and the strength of the past. I fain would bring some- 
thing better than that which I do bring to him whom I know 
I love, and who knows that I love him. I fain would bring a 
higher thought, a clearer purpose, a character whose essential 
powers are higher than, mine have been. I know that I have 
felt the grace of God in my heart; but alas ! it seems as though 
God's grace were but as Columbus, that touched the shore here 
and there, and left the vast continent within almost unexplored 
— certainly unsubdued and untilled. I am not content when I 
think of the generosities and magnanimities of which my life 
should perpetually speak, as a band of music speaks sweet notes, 
stretching them far out through the air. How is it with you ? 
Are you content with the character which you brought out of 
the old year, and with which you are setting forward upon the 
new ? Is not this a time for you to review your character, and 
see what are its elements, how you are shaping it, what you 
mean by it, and what you have obtained thus far ? Is it not a 
time for you to look into the future ? No matter how old you 
are, it is not too late for you to learn in the school of Christ. 
And it is a noble ambition with which you should begin the 
year — not to swell your coffers, not to have more of this world's 
good,'but to begin the year chiefly with the ambition to be 
more like Christ, and to have the power of God resting upon 
you, and to know the will of God, and so to live that whosoev- 
er meets you shall know that you have been with Christ. 



10 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Out of this sj^irit what blessings will flow ! Oh, if you were 
holier, how much happier would you he ! Oh, if you were ho- 
lier, how would fall down from you straightway those discon- 
tents, those cares, those frets, those ill wills, and those thousand 
torments which so much have snared you, and so much have 
marred your enjoyment in the days that are past ! It is be- 
cause you are not good that you are not happy. For he that 
dwells in the secret j)lace of the Almighty, he that lives as in the 
very presence of Christ, can say, " My Master hath said, I will 
never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that I can boldly cry, the 
Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto 
me." 

A friend stands at the door ; 

In either tight-closed hand 
Hiding rich gifts, three hundred and threescore ; 

Waiting to strew them daily o'er the land, 
Even as seed the sower. 

Each drop he treads it in, and passes by : 

It can not be made fruitful till it die. 

Eriend, come thou like a friend, 

And whether bright thy face, 
Or dim with clouds we can not comprehend, 

We'll hold our patient hands, each in his place, 
And trust thee to the end ; 

Knowing thou leadest onward to those spheres 

Where there are neither days, nor months, nor years. 



JANUARY 1 : EVENING. 
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. — Ephes. v., 16. 

Did you ever sit down and make an inventory of what you 
do, in order to come to a distinct understanding with reference 
to your use of time ? You probably know all about your pos- 
sessions. You know every bond, if you have bonds ; you know 
every mortgage, if you have mortgages ; you know every dol- 
lar that is deposited, if you have deposits of money ; you know 
every piece of property, if you own real estate ; you know all 
your debts and credits. These things you look at both in detail 
and in the sum. But God has given our chief treasure to us in 
the use of time ; and how many of us know what we do with 
our time? How many of us have ever taken even a cursory 
view of one single year, saying, "I am anxious to know, on the 
whole, how I carried myself with reference to a faithful use of 



JANUARY. n 

the element of time through January, February, March, April, 
May, June, July, August, from month to month ? What is the 
habit of my life in this respect ? Of the time that is given me, 
how much of it do I use well ; how much do I use indifferent- 
ly ; and how much do I squander ?" There is not one man in 
a hundred that ever thought of these things. We hear the 
general declaration that we ought to employ our time; men 
are exhorted to be diligent in business and fervent in spirit ; 
but there are very few who ever sit down to make a deliberate 
inventory in regard to the element of time, so as to form a cor- 
rect judgment of their habit of using it. Ought that so to be? 

Every hour that fleets so slowly, 

Has its task to do or bear ; 
Luminous the crown, and holy, 

If thou set each gem with care. 

Hours are golden links, God's token, 

Eeaching heaven but one by one ; 
Take them, lest the chain be broken 

Ere the pilgrimage be done. 



JANUARY 2 : MORNING. 

And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of of- 
fense toward God and toward men. — Acts xxiv., 16. 

How blessed it is to be able, as one is drawing near to his 
decline, to bear this testimony : " I have a good conscience." 
And how sad it is that a man's conscience, which begins life 
like a full-stringed harp, should become like a harp out of which 
one cord after another has been broken, till at last it is not capa- 
ble of melody, certainly not of harmony, and is only a remnant 
of what it once was. 

There are some men and some matrons whose age fills me 
with more respect than any temple. I have stood before great 
piles of architecture, whose impression so affected me that I 
trembled as if I had a chill or a fever in my veins ; but I have 
stood before men and women whose greatness, and serenity, 
and goodness were such that I felt like bowing down in their 
presence. 

I have also stood before men so gaunt, so hard, so selfish, so 
hackneyed, that I felt that I was in a cave where monsters re- 



12 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

sorted, and I trembled with horror, as before I had trembled 
with sympathy and with love. 

God grant to you the liberty of a good conscience. And if 
he does grant it, it must be by your help. You are to form 
your own conscience, and you are to form the habit of follow- 
ing that conscience implicitly. 



JANUARY 2 : EVENING. 

Fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer : behold, the devil shall 
cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have trib- 
ulation ten days : be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown 
of life.— Rev. ii.,10. 

Need any one be discouraged who has begun to live a Chris- 
tian life, because so often he has failed and fallen into back- 
sliding ? "Whatever may have been the arguments of the past, 
let them be forgotten. Try again. There are thousands of 
Christians who too soon grow discouraged, saying, " I have 
proved that I was mistaken. I have proved that the root of 
the matter was not in me. There is no use ; I have tried and 
failed." There is all the use in the world. No man ever fails 
until death settles the great conflict. Because you have begun, 
and then stumbled and lagged, and gone back a little way, do 
not give up the whole contest. There is encouragement, since 
we have one that is not ashamed of us in spite of our defec- 
tions and inferiorities. Why should we not, therefore, gird up 
our loins and take a fresh hold, with new consecration, on the 
Christian life ? Will not every day's experience give reason 
and argument for gratitude to such a Lord as this ? Is there 
not in every Christian man's life and experience reason for 
blessing, for thanks, for gratitude inexpressible to him that has 
revealed his Son Jesus Christ, the helpful, the loving, the pa- 
tient, the gentle ? 

Pilgrim of earth, who art journeying to heaven ! 

Heir of eternal life ! child of the day ! 
Cared for, watched over, beloved and forgiven — 

Art thou discouraged because of the way ? 

Earthliness, coldness, unthankful behavior — 
Ah ! thou mayest sorrow, but do not despair ; 

Even this grief thou mayest bring to thy Savior, 
Cast upon Him e'en this burden and care ! 



JANUARY. 



13 



Bring all thy hardness — his power can suhdue it ; 

How full is the promise ! the blessing how free ! 
' ' Whatsoever ye ask in my name, I will do it. 

Abide in my love, and be joyful in me." 



JANTIABY 3 : MORNING. 
And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold 
water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise 
lose his reward. — Matt, x., 42. 

Were cold water as rare and as costly as wine, I believe 
that it would be counted a luxury beyond all vintage. No 
wine ever tasted half so good as water does to a thirsty soul ; 
and its rarity would make all men temperance men. But God 
has made the bounty so universal and abundant that it is with- 
out money or price. It throbs under our feet in hidden veins. 
Every hill has its springs. It gushes out from rocks and seams 
of mountains. Rivers are full, and lakes ; and the clouds go 
carrying it all around the world ; it is distilled in dew, and 
poured down in rain or snow, beyond all human need, immeas- 
urable and superabundant. 

And so, except in rare cases, or under extraordinary circum- 
stances, water is without a market value. The most indispens- 
able article of human life is one that has no price affixed to it, 
and can have none. What a thing, then, is that for a gift — a 
thing that is so common that it has no value attached to it. 
How poor one must be that, looking around, has nothing to give 
but a cup of cold water ! And suppose such a one wishes to 
do a kindness. He dare not offer it to the great, to the rich, to 
the strong. It would be an insult. It is needless to convey it 
to his neighbor or workman. Even the pauper will hardly 
thank you for it. But a little child may be unable to raise the 
bucket, and too helpless to manage a pump. It is not his child, 
nor his neighbor's, but simply a poor little thirsty child. How 
poor must one be that can find no one to accept the gift but a 
vagrant child, and that has no gift to offer but a cup of cold 
water ! Surely there is nothing minuter, more nearly insignifi- 
cant than this. But God says, " If you give a cup of cold wa- 
ter only to a child, in the name of a disciple" — that is, from a 
genuine sympathy, and with the kindness and the spirit of a 



14 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

disciple — " you shall not lose your reward." There is not any 
thing so little that it does not carry a blessing if you do it out 
of a real impulse of Christian kindness. 



JANUARY 3 : EVENING. 

What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death ? shall he deliver his 
soul from the hand of the grave 1—Psa. lxxxix., 48. 

There comes a time, my friends, when we can no longer 
stand in the same relations that we have stood in. Youth 
fades ; the eye grows dim; the ear waxes dull; the foot becomes 
slower, and the hand less nimble. As, when they take down a 
tent, one cord slacks after another, and one peg after another is 
drawn out of the ground, and all are but premonitory symptoms 
of its collapse and fall, so one and another sign of age, as they 
come upon us, are but so many testimonies that this material 
tabernacle is being taken down. If we have gained honors, 
the time is coming speedily when we must lay them aside ; for 
honors never go to funerals with the men that have worn them. 
If we have pleasures, the time will come when they will be less 
remunerative; and they will stop just at the period when most 
we need them. "When age begins to dawn, and our companions 
have passed away, and we are left solitary and alone; when 
our health breaks down, and our buoyancy of spirit ceases; 
when our faces are set toward the grave, and we are marching 
thither — what can riches do for us? What can all the accla- 
mation of the world do for the man that is dying ? It rolls 
and roars up to his dwelling, where he lies a sufferer, as the 
thunder of the ocean in the ear of the mariner drowned and 
cast upon the shore. He hears it not ; and if he heard it, it 
would be but a vain clamor. 

But he that has lived for love, purity, duty, heaven, and im- 
mortality will be happy under all circumstances. When sick- 
ness comes to him, Christ the Comforter comes with it. When 
sorrows, then the bow of promise comes. And when death it- 
self comes, what is it but the hand of God sent to take him 
home ? Dying is vacation, and joy, and happiness. He only 
is happy who knows how to be one with Christ, to suffer with 
him, and to live with him. 



• JANUARY. 15 

Earth's joys are but a dream ; its destiny- 
Is but decay and death ; its faintest form 

Sunshine and shadow mixed ; its brightest day 
A rainbow braided on the wreaths of storm. 

Yet there is blessedness that changeth not ; 

A rest with God, a life that can not die ; 
A better portion and a brighter lot ; 

A home with Christ, a heritage on high. 



JANUARY 4 : MORNING. 

my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord : my goodness 
extendeth not to thee. — Psa. xvi., 2. 

If we turn to what we are, if we look to our achievements, 
if we measure even our hope and aspiration, there is but very- 
little satisfaction, and it is soon worn out. There is not in all 
the weavings of our fancy, in all the turnings of our thoughts, 
or in our daily life, enough to gratify us. We need God. He 
has infinite fullness, greatness, and glory. In him is all purity 
and goodness, all justice and truth ; in him are all things that 
engage the heart, enwrap the imagination, and fire .the soul 
wit hecstasy. All are born with him and dwell with him; 
and in his heart is sufficient for all the wants of all the hearts 
throughout the desolate universe. O Lord our God ! when 
shall we rise to some conception of thee above the things that 
thou hast made ? When shall we see in all these things but 
mere symbols and interpretations of thy nature, until human 
life shall be again the book of God to our eye, as it once was 
to the eyes of prophets and inspired men ? 



JANUARY 4 : EVENING. 

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me ; and he 
that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.— Matt, x., 37. 

It is hard to lose your children ; therefore consecrate them, 
that they may never be lost. It is hard to see your property 
dissipated ; therefore consecrate it to God, and be content to 
let God do what seems best to him with his own. It is hard 
to throw away one's own life ; but there is a way of giving 
one's life to the cause of country, and to the cause of God, such 



16 MORNING AND. EVENING EXERCISES. 

that it is a joy to die and a joy to suffer. But ah ! this cometh 
not forth but by prayer and fasting. This is a higher view, a 
holier conception of things than men often take. And if we 
are to go through these trials rejoicing and singing all the way, 
we must learn to love God and his cause more than houses, or 
parents, or children, or wife, or husband, or friends, or all these 
together. 

Oh ! you do not think, you do not stop to think, what life is, 
and what it is taking hold of — an infinite God ; an eternity of 
joy ; an immortality of glory. Oh ! you do not pierce to the 
meaning of these things. It is but little to suffer, it is but little 
to struggle, it is but little to be weighed down with a cross, if 
only it be Christ's cross, in comparison with that eternal weight 
of glory that shall be revealed in us. 

Let us be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work 
of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labor is not vain in 
the Lord. 



JANUARY 5: MORNING. 

I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is 
in Christ Jesus our Lord.— Rom. viii., 38, 39. 

It is not that the force of our love to God is so great that 
nothing can ever root it up — that is not the emphasis of the 
passage ; it is that the love of God to us is so great that none 
of these things will ever move that procuring cause of good in 
him. God loves us so that neither law, nor power, nor earthly 
experience, nor heavenly adjudications, nor any human witness- 
es, nor any accusing spirits, nor any thing, shall quench, or cause 
to glow with one diminished ray the intensity of his love. None 
of these things shall take away that love which led him to give 
his Son to die for us, and to raise him up to be our everlasting 
intercessor. It shall be to us like the sun that carries never- 
ending summer from age to age. 

Shall such a God, with such a disposition and such a history, 
be unwilling to give to his children the help which they need 
to live and to bear life — to die and to reach heaven? "If God 



JANUARY. 



11 



— and such a God — be for us, who can be against us ?" Who 
is there so wise, or what is there so active and energetic, that 
it can withstand such a guardianship as this ? 

JANUARYS: EVENING. 

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. — 2 Peter iii., 13. 

We rejoice that we may have faith when we can not have 
sight ; and that we may have sure confidence in God and in 
his kingdom, and believe, even against sight, that it is growing 
and taking possession of the earth, and that it will yet so cleanse 
it and redeem it that the heavens shall descend, and Christ shall 
reign again, and the heavens and the earth shall be as one. But, 
though that far-off time lures our thought and charms our im- 
agination, it is for us to labor in this sin-smitten earth, that 
groans and travails in pain unto this day. On every side we 
hear the groaning ; but how little in the world is heard, lifted 
up in the midst of storm and tumult, the holy joys, the rejoicing 
of God's elect, that in every part of the earth do, day by day, 
sing his praises. And yet, in the growing storm, the voice of 
his witnesses still gains in power. Year Ity year, more there 
are that join it, and more and more there are voices attuned to 
the divine melody ; and yet one day shall come when the voice 
of his ransomed people shall outbrave the storms of depravity, 
and all the harsh, discordant sounds that are now filling the 
earth, and there shall break forth yet triumphant the music of 
the sweet Gospel of Christ, and all the earth shall be filled with 
it. This world, that hath been a choir of sadness and sorrow, 
groaning and weeping, shall swing round about the throne, full 
of blessed sounds of gladness, and with music fitting the high 
estate and majesty of the kingdom of God. 



JANUARY 6 : MORNING. 

"Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and 
Christ shall give thee light.— Ephes. v., 14. 

Those hours when you feel a strange drawing toward that 
B 



18 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

which is pure, and true, and right, are hours of God's visitation. 
Your soul is not far from its Maker in such hours. Be grate- 
ful for those periods of peculiar yearning away from evil and 
toward good. Take them. They are open doors to your pris- 
on-house. Are there any bad habits, any evil courses to which 
you have been addicted, about which you have pondered, and 
of which you have said, " O that I could be set free from 
them?" Venture; break away from your wicked ways; do 
not wait till your impulses are stronger; do not wait till the 
spark becomes a flame ; take a little, and go to that toward 
which it points. It was a star that led the wise men to the 
place where Jesus lay. When but a single star shines from 
that which is right, and pure, and true, follow it, and it will 
lead you to the place where the young child Jesus lies. If 
you are willing to awake from sleep, and arise from death, God 
will give you salvation. 

For who is God ? He is one that will not break the bruised 
reed, nor quench the smoking flax, till he shall bring forth judg- 
ment unto victory ; he is one that takes little feelings and min- 
isters to them as gently as you carry a lamp whose flickering 
flame you do not wish to have blown out ; he is one who deals 
with men so tendtrly that if you take these flickering flames 
which from time to time he sends to inspire in you higher 
purposes, and lead you on to nobler ends, he will bring forth 
victory out of them. 



JANUARY 6: EVENING. 

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me, 
* * * * when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about 
me. — Job xxix., 2, 5. 

The duties of the household we covet when they are no lon- 
ger possible to us. The love of family, of children, of friends, 
clustered together in the most sacred relationships — would that 
we knew how to give them their true value, how to perceive 
their beauty, and how to take their ministration. 

Oh ! our cares even are dear to us, though we may not know 
it when we are in the midst of them. I remember when, with 
impatient voice, I commanded the children to cease the racket 



JANUARY. 19 

of their sport. Could I not be permitted to read ? Must my 

house be as a bedlam ? I would to God that I had children to 

cry there now. Was your little babe so troublesome that you 

sometimes wondered that God should make it fretful all night, 

so that you must needs rise every hour to nurse it and to care 

for it ? and did you begin to talk about your weariness and 

great pain in taking care of the child ? Peradventure God 

heard you; for he took it to himself. He never begrudges 

the care of any thing. And then, when you saw the child's 

little things that were put away in the drawer, how, in the 

anguish of your soul, you said, " Oh ! if it were a thousand 

times as much pain and care to me, would to God that I might 

have it back again !" 

And so it happens to us, after the words of the poet : 

"And she is gone ; sweet human love is gone ! 
Tis only when they spring to heaven that angels 
Keveal themselves to you ; they sit all day 
Beside you, and he down at night by you, 
Who care not for their presence — muse or sleep : 
And all at once they leave you, and you know them ! 
We are so fooled, so cheated!" 



JANUARY 1: MORNING. 

And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the 
land of Canaan, and blessed me. — Gen. xlviii., 3. 

What other experience is like that of the personal disclosure 
of God in the soul ? We have read of God in books, and be- 
lieved. We have gazed upon the earth and the sky, and wor- 
shiped. We have yielded faith and feeling to inspirations of 
the sanctuary, and rejoiced withal. But there comes an hour 
to some, to many, of transfiguration. It may be in grief; it 
may be in joy ; it may be the opening of the door of sickness ; 
it may be in active duty ; it may be under the roof or under 
the sky, where God draws near with such reality, glory, and 
power that the soul is filled, amazed, transported. All before 
was nothing ; all afterward will be but as a souvenir. That 
single vision, that one hour, is worth the whole of life, and 
throws back a light on all that went before. It solves doubts, 
it glorifies mysteries Tfhich no longer seem abysses beneath us, 



20 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

but golden floods above us. It shoots radiant arrows through 
all doubts and skepticisms, and gives to the soul some such 
certainty of invisible spiritual truths as one has of his own per- 
sonal identity. When one has had this hour of divine disclos- 
ure, of full and entrancing vision, it can never be retracted, or 
effaced, or reasoned against, or forgotten. The impression re- 
mains, and the soul goes back to it with assurance and trust, 
from all its fears, and scruples, and intellectual uncertainties. 
It fulfills the words of the Master, " And he shall give you an- 
other Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the 
Spirit of truth, whom the world can not receive because it seeth 
him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him ; for he dwell- 
eth with you, and shall be in you." 

JANUARY 7 : EVENING. 
Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help. — Rosea xiii., 9. 

Ask the physician to what he trusts to throw out morbific 
influences from the human body. What is the stream that car- 
ries reparation to the wasted parts, that carries stimulation to 
the dormant parts, that carries nutrition to the exhausted parts ? 
It is the blood. 

And throughout the vast heaven, throughout time and the 
universe, the blood of the world comes from the heart of God. 
The mercies of the loving God throb every where — above and 
below, within and without, endless in circuits, vast in distribu- 
tion, infinitely potential. It is the heart of God that carries res- 
toration, inspiration, aspiration, and final victory. And as long 
as God lives, and is what he is, " the Father of mercies, and 
the God of all comfort," so long this world is not going to rack 
and ruin. Though men despond, though the work seem to be 
delayed, though men watch as in the night for the slow coming 
of the sun of a winter morning, nevertheless, he that has taken 
his observation, and has based his faith on the character and 
nature of God, knows that though a thousand years, or cycles 
of thousands of years may intervene, in the end there shall be 
a new heaven and a new earth in which shall dwell righteous- 
ness. The earth is not forever to groan. There is to come a 
day when God shall sound the note from the throne where he 



JANUARY. 21 

is, and when, from afar off, catching that key-note and theme, 
this old earth, so long dismal, and wailing, as it rolls, the sad 
requiem of sin and death, shall surprise the spheres, and fill all 
the universe with the chanting song of victory, " Christ hath 
redeemed us, and reigns in every heart, and over all the earth." 
The time shall come. 

True Tree of Life ! of thee I eat and live : 
Who eateth of thy fruit shall never die ; « 

'Tis thine the everlasting health to give, 
The youth and bloom of immortality. 

Feeding on thee, all weakness turns to power ; 

This sickly soul revives, like earth in spring ; 
Strength floweth on and in ; each buoyant hour, 

This being seems all energy, all wing. 



JANUARY 8 : MORNING. 

And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one ; to 
every man according to his several ability. — Matt, xxv., 15. 

Men are not unfrequently "brought to great suffering by 
striving to be what others are — by looking at experiences for- 
eign to their nature, and endeavoring to reproduce them. Men 
think that, if religior: is the work of God, it is the same in every 
body. You might as well say that if flowers are the work of 
God, flowers are the same every where. In point of fact, they 
are alike nowhere — they are varied endlessly. And there is 
nothing truer than that every man's religion is relative to what 
he is by his religious organization, and to that state to which 
he has been brought by his education and his relationships in 
life. All a man can do, healthfully, is to say, "How shall I take 
this disposition of mine, made up, as it is, of various conflicting 
elements, and oblige it to conform to the law of God, which is 
love and benevolence ? How shall I do that ?" Every man 
must answer this question for himself. 

I think life is like a voyage. Suppose there should start out 
from your harbor, for the purpose of crossing the ocean, a yacht, 
a sloop, a schooner, a hermaphrodite brig, a full-rigged brig, a 
bark, a ship, and a man-of-war. They are all going to make a 
voyage. Now, then, suppose that the yacht should look at the 



22 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

man-of-war, as she moved down the bay with all her canvas set, 
and say, " How can I get such sails upon me as that great and 
noble ship has upon her ?" Every man would, say, " A yacht 
must sail like a yacht, a sloop like a sloop, a schooner like a 
schooner, a brig like a brig, and a ship like a ship. Each ves- 
sel must make the voyage with its own hull and sails, and not 
copy those of any other." Now God has given every man a 
hull with which to make the voyage of life, and he has rigged 
every man according to the circumstances in which he has 
lived ; and, to be a Christian, you are not to attempt to make 
yourself like this man or that man, but to take yourself, what- 
ever you are, and endeavor to serve God, and live in obedience 
to his laws. The attempt to pattern after other persons will, 
in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, only lead to miscarriages, 
and doubt, and depression of mind. 

JANUARYS-. EVENING. 

After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which, no man could number, 
of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, 
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and 
cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb. — Rev. vii., 9, 10. 

We adore thee, O thou blessed God, thou who art exalted 
above all ascription; thou that canst not be described, nor 
enough loved or admired; thou who art in heaven, surrounded 
by ten thousand times ten thousand congenial spirits, we, too, 
though far down, are in thy train ; we, too, feel this divine im- 
pulse; and though with imperfect thought, and with mixed 
feelings, and with impure hearts, yet claim thee God accord- 
ing to the measure of our power. We rejoice in the blessed- 
ness of their victory, nor do we repine that it is not given to us 
to be conquerors upon earth. Ours is yet the warfare, theirs 
the rest. We yet are in bodies that require our severest gov- 
ernment ; we are attempting to bring every thought and feel- 
ing into subjection to Jesus Christ's law; we are wrestling 
with pride that refuses coercion, and watching selfishness that 
presses like a flood. We ax - e yet endeavoring to contend 
against principalities, the prince of the power of the air, the 



JANUARY. 23 

spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience ; we are la- 
boring in every way of life to perfect the spirit of Christ in us, 
and it doth not cast any shadows upon us to think that there 
are some who have finished this work; that they were ours, 
but now are God's. We are glad for their victory, nor are we 
discouraged with the battle because they have gone first, but 
rather we are enheartened, and we are sure that the path which 
gave them victory is th% path that Christ trod and that we 
shall tread. And we take comfort that there seem to come 
to us from the very heavens those sweet and nourishing influ- 
ences which we so much need in life, speaking to us by ten 
thousand memories. 



JANUARY 9 : MORNING. 

I am the Lord, and there is none else ; there is no God besides me : I girded 
thee, though thou hast not known me. — Isaiah xlv., 5. 

We are to look upon our life not as some tumultuous whirl 
in which we have but a chance. We are to understand that 
this which is to us so much disturbed, and stirred up, and 
strangely contrary, is appointed of God to be a school ; and 
that men are to be educated in this life by contact with its 
affairs, and by the discharge of its duties. We are to under- 
stand that those things which befall us do not spring from the 
ground; that our trials and our troubles are not like arrows 
sent by some adversary ; that the restrictions and the difficul- 
ties, the burdens borne, the tasks painful to be performed, are 
not imposed upon us by chance ; that there is an overruling 
Wisdom, a guiding Hand, a purpose of life ; and that, though 
we do not go with our Teacher intelligently, understanding 
what he means, yet he guides us and conducts us. May we be 
disposed to accept each day, therefore, as a clay appointed of 
God ; and may we search in all our affairs how to approve our- 
selves before our great Teacher ; and may each day educate us 
in truth, in justice, in honor, in love, in fidelity, in patience, in 
meekness, in all things that are good. May there be no day in 
which we are not victorious over some temptation, over some 
evil ; no day in which we are not heroic in some endurance or 



24 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

achievement ; no day in which we are not imitators of Christ^ 
divine example. 

JANUARYS: EVENING. 

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly herit- 
age. — Psalm xvi., 6. 

Are you not happier than you are accustomed to think? 
Are you not in the midst of more privileges than you are ac- 
customed to reckon ? Will it not prove true, by-and-by, that 
this hour is happier far than you give it credit for being ? Are 
not your friends better than you think they are ? Are they not 
more faultless than in your calendar from day to day they are 
written down as being ? Are not your burdens lighter than 
your complaining back makes them out to be? Is not the yoke 
easier ? Is it flint under your foot ? But is it not flint from 
the crevices of which flowers are growing ? Are there thorns 
upon the trees ? But orange-trees have fruits as well as thorns. 
Is it a weary thing that you must needs, in your daily toil, gp 
far out from the city to the w r ell to draw your daily w r ater? 
But is there not a Christ there — yea, even to such a one as the 
woman of Samaria ? Though living in pleasurable sin, and in 
wrong, was there not waiting for her, even in her daily tasks, 
a Savior, a Prophet, with the great blessing of instruction ? 
And ought we not, bearing this in mind, to make more of one 
another ; more of our children ; more of our parents ; more of 
our brothers and sisters ; more of our neighbors ; more of the 
Church ; more of the Bible-class ; more of the Sabbath-school ; 
more of all works by which we cleanse the morals of men, and 
raise up the ignorant, and prosper those that are unfortunate ? 
May not life be filled fuller of blessings if only we know how 
to redeem the time, and appreciate the opportunity to perceive 
the God that is near us ? 

Thus often, when we feel alone, 

No help nor comfort near, 
'Tis only that our eyes are dim ; 
Doubting and sad, we see not him 

Who waiteth still to hear. 

" The darkness gathers overhead, 
The morn will never come!" 



JANUARY. 25 

Did we but raise our downcast eyes, 
In the wide-flushing eastern skies 
Appears the glowing sun. 

Open our eyes, O Lord, v?e pray, 

To see our Way, our Guide ; 
That by the path that here we tread, 
We, following on, may still be led 

In thy light to abide. 



JANUARY 10: MORNING. 

A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many 
Wicked. — Psalm xxxvii., 16. 

Let me say a word to those who .are in the active pursuit 
of wealth, and are far advanced toward it. It would be vain, 
perhaps, to go back upon your path now, and reprobate the 
means by which you have acquired your wealth. Let that pass. 
What you have done, you have done. It stands, and will 
meet you in the day of judgment. That which I am concerned 
with is your present condition and character. Now I charge 
you, before God, to be honest with yourselves. What has been 
the effect, up to this hour, of the process by which you have 
been obtaining wealth ? You can tell, if you will take the 
trouble to examine into the matter ; or, if you can not, your 
neighbor can. Go and ask him. Enter into bonds that you 
will not repeat what he tells you. Say to him, "Do you really 
think that I have been made better or worse by prosperity ? 
Am I more obstinate than I was ? Am I uglier than I was ? 
Am I more selfish and arrogant than I was ?" 

It is a solemn thing for a man that is prospering in life to 
pass in review not only what have been the ways in which he 
has acquired his property, but what has been its effect upon 
him — to say to himself, " I have been getting wealth ; what 
has been the effect of it, thus far, upon my character ? What 
are my purposes now ? Am I satisfied with getting, or is the 
hunger and thirst for wealth in me more imperious than ever 
before ?" Which way is it working with you ? So long as a 
man feels, "I am laboring for wealth as a means of doing 
good," he may labor with comparative safety ; but the moment 



26 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

lie has an ambition to be rich he has passed the line of safe- 
ty — he has crossed the equator into a region where fierce tor- 
nadoes sweep over him, all unbidden p and unheralded. 



JANUARY 10: EVENING. 
I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. — 2 Sam. xii., 23. 

Oh, how many of our friends, who have wept upon earth, 
have long since forgotten to weep. How many that on earth 
faltered in praise go forth in the grandeur of heavenly joy. 
How many that lisped by our sides are speaking in the full 
vocalization of heavenly music. How many who went from 
us before they spoke at all, might well be our teachers now. 
We thank thee, O Jesus, that thou art so loved, that thou art 
embraced by all the myriads of those who have been redeemed 
by thee in every age. Thou art born up upon the praises of 
thy blessed sanctified church in heaven. We have those there 
who are united to us by memory, by love, and by all the ties 
of earthly relationships. They praise thee, they rejoice in 
thee, they comfort us when we think of them. We would not 
call them back ; we only desire to hold them in such remem- 
brance that we may follow hard after them, and, in the way 
where they found victory, find our victory too. We call back 
none to our arms who are gone forth ; we call back none to 
light our dwellings whose going forth was as the setting sun ; 
we call back no treasures taken to please God, but we only re- 
member that they have gone, and that we shall surely go after 
them. 



JANUARY 11 : HORNING. 

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name 
is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite 
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart 
of the contrite ones. — Isaiah lvii., 15. 

Thou art pleased, O Father, with the humble and with the 
contrite, with such as are of a broken spirit ; thou art pleased 
with the first and most imperfect sign of repentance, and for- 
saking of evil, and yearning for the truth. And we come be- 



JANUARY. 27 

fore thee, not bringing purified gold and silver as offerings, but 
faint, and hungry, and weary, and often discouraged, and con- 
scious deeply of our own demerit and sinfulness, we come be- 
fore thee, because thou hast revealed thyself a God of tender 
mercy, a Savior of sinners. Lift thou upon us the light of thy 
countenance, for we are in darkness. Send us mercies, for we 
are weak. Love us, not because we are able to repay thee, but 
because thou knowest, in the royalty of thy nature, how to 
love the unworthy, and even the unlovely. Grant, we beseech 
thee, that to-day we may have developed in us the divine na- 
ture, in magnanimity, in generosity, in all tender mercy and 
kindness. 

JANUARY 11 : EVENING. 
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; that when 
his glory shall he revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. — 1 Peter 
iv., 13. 

I have heard of men carrying charms or amulets as remedies 
or protectives against evils or mischief. Here is a charm or 
amulet which, if you will take it and wear it, will be an exor- 
cism against evil, and against all the annoyances of human life. 
Think of Christ, and measure your experiences by his ; and when 
you begin to feel that your lot is trying and burdensome, say, 
instantly, to yourself, " Am I better than my Master ? And 
was not his lot, when he was on the earth, more trying and 
more burdensome than mine ?" In respect to every thing 
which affects your happiness and comfort in this world — your 
surroundings, your companionships, your prospects, and your 
vexations and annoyances — look away to Jesus, and measure 
your life by his earthly life. Think what he was in his estate 
here below. Think how much better off you are, for the most 
part, than he was. Think how many more mercies you enjoy 
than he enjoyed. Think how much he suffered for us. Think 
what a legacy he has left us as the fruit of his sufferings. 

We transcend him in the abundance of the blessings we re- 
ceive, and how ashamed ought we to be of that effeminacy 
which makes us unwilling to suffer the least things with him 
— yea, for him ; for remember that when we suffer for Christ 
we do not merely suffer in our experience on account of our 



28 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

faith in him. Whenever we take any thing which is to us a 
trial or a burden, and say, " Now for Christ's sake I will bear 
this," then we are suffering for Christ. And the declaration 
of Scripture is, that if you suffer for him, you are brought into 
the most intimate fellowship with him. 



JANUARY 1%: MORNING. 

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candle- 
stick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. — Matt, v., 15. 

You are set on a candlestick to give light to those around 
you. Do you shine with a true light? Do you show forth 
the attribute's of Christ ? Are your life and conduct charac- 
terized by benignity, patience, gentleness, love, and 1 the other 
Christian graces ? Do your children see Christ manifested in 
you ? Do you carry yourself in such a way as to lead people 
to say, " There is such a thing as personal piety ; there is a 
new life created by the power of God in the souls of men '?" 
Is that the effect of your mode of living ? 

Sometimes the Church think we must have a revival. They 
think we must go to meeting, and sing, and pray, and strive 
with God. This is not wrong in its place, but ordinarily the 
best way to make God's truth efficacious for the conversion of 
men is to live it before them. The coming up of one bed of 
crocuses, and the flying of one bluebird or robin, are truer 
signs of spring than all artificial signs. The way to find out 
when it is spring is not to look into the almanac, and see what 
that says, but to look out of doors, and see what the temper- 
ature of the air is. And the way to convince worldly peo- 
ple of the reality of piety is to exemplify it in your own lives. 
The way to preach the Gospel to men is to be filled with its 
spirit yourself. The way to draw men to Christ is to stand 
before them radiant with the garments of Christ ; it is to put 
on Christ himself. The place to begin a revival is at homejin 
your own closet, and in the midst of your own family. Have 
a revival at morning prayer; have a revival at evening prayer; 
have a revival in your own experience and relations. This is 
the way to clothe yourself with Christ ; and no man shall do 



JANUARY. 29 

it and not be made instrumental in bringing God to the heart 
of somebody else. 

JANUARY 12 : EVENING. 

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, God ! how great is the sum 
of them ! — Psalm cxxxix. , 17. 

It is not because we are good, nor easily made good ; it is 
not because we are docile or easily instructible that we have 
any hope, for we find ourselves coarse, and dull, and worldly, 
ungenerous, selfish, and proud ; at times envious and jealous, 
and filled with all hatefulness of that which, when it comes to 
us revealed in the light of higher truths, makes us shrink from 
ourselves with unutterable loathing, and wonder that God can 
look with complacency for a moment upon us. 

And yet, O God, such is thy love, and such is the patience 
with which it hath inspired thee, that thou hast not been weary 
of thy charge. Thou hast borne us up more tenderly than ever 
did our parents in our infancy, and thy thoughts toward us, how 
precious and how exceeding great the number of them ! The 
wonder of thy grace, of thy tenderness, and of thy kindness 
have begun to awaken in us an earnest desire to please thee. 
But only when we endeavor to please thee do we find how void 
we are by nature of goodness ; only then, when we attempt to 
reach forth our hand to write thy praise, do we find how rude 
and untaught our hands are. "We stand before thee undressed; 
we stand empty ; with all thy teaching, there is nothing that 
we should presume to hold up before thee and say, " Be gra- 
cious unto us by reason of our excellence." Our whole hoj)e 
and faith is in the greatness, in the grandeur, in the inexhaust- 
ibleness of thy love. In thyself we must needs find our re- 
demption and our sanctification. 



t JANUARY 13 : MORNING. 

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of 
others.— Phil. \i., 4. 

You have no right to be unconcerned whether men act 
rightly or wrongly — whether they are good or bad. That 



30 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

spirit which says, "'I will take care of my own self, and let oth- 
er men take care of themselves," is of the devil. The spirit of 
God is this : "Look not every man on his own things, but every 
man also on the things of others." That spirit which says of 
a man's conduct, "Oh, it is his own affair, not mine," is unchris- 
tian. It is his own affair, but it is yours too ! In some degree, 
it is every man's concern how those around about him live. 
" Am I my brother's keeper ?" Yes, you are, to some extent, 
your brother's keeper. Not by authority, not as a judge, not 
as an officer, but as a brother; not in a spirit of judgment, not 
under the inspirations of a close-measuring conscience, but in a 
spirit of sympathy and love. And no man has a right to call 
himself a Christian who, living among men, finds that the only 
thing he cares for is himself — that the only things that affect 
his mind are moral considerations of his own purity and his 
own enjoyment. 

Lord God, if one without due fear 

Repeat thy ten commandments here, 
And break them then, — not true his love to thee ; 

So if one call thee Father, yet 

His brethren own not, or forget, 
Sick is his heart, though sound his words may be. 



JANUARY 13 : EVENING. 
Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. — Ephes. iii., 15. 

How unlike are we one to another, and how exactly alike 
are we before God ! How different in our parentage, how won- 
drously different in our education, how different in all the parts 
of our nature, and in all those habits that have been formed 
upon them — in our views, prejudices, and associations — so dif- 
ferent that we scarcely know how to get along with each other, 
because our pride teaches us to put emphasis on the things in 
which we differ one from another ; but God looks upon us in 
the things in which we agree. We are all children of the dust; 
all have common weaknesses ; all are alike temptable, stuln- 
bling, and falling ; all depend upon him in the great needs of 
our being ; all march with one step toward the glorious discn- 
thrallment of the eternal sphere; all are redeemed Jby Christ's 
sufferings and righteousness ; all wait for the promise of the 



JANUARY. 32 

Father. How many and how great are the things that band 
us together, that stamp upon us the name of God, and give us 
a common brotherhood. God grant that we may feel this high 
and solemn fellowship, this grandeur and glory of unity. May 
we be lifted above forrn, and carried above all mere exponents 
of truth, and stand in the fellowship of those blessed truths in 
Christ Jesus. May we learn to love one another, not with 
mere sentiment, but with truth, and a charity that will show 
itself in all the phases of life. May we feel that to love is bet- 
ter than to be great, is better than to be refined, is better than 
to be wise; that love takes precedence of all prophecy, of every 
kind of knowledge, and of the gift of tongues ; that love is 
higher than hope and faith, and is the very royalty of God. 



JANUARY 14 : MORNING. 

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect ; hut I 
follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of 
Christ Jesus.— Phil, iii., 12. 

. If you suppose that when a man professes Christianity, he is 
finished, and put into the church, as a marble statue, when it is 
completed, is put into the exhibiting room to be criticised, you 
are very much mistaken. When a man begins to live a Chris- 
tian life, he is very much like the artist's model instead of his 
statue. It is pretty much all mud and dirt, and it is far from 
being in the proper form at that. Long labor is necessary to 
shape the plastic material and bring it to the required propor- 
tions. When the model is perfected, the artist hands it to his 
attendants»who cut it in marble, and at last the statue is com- 
pleted. 

When men go into the Church of Christ, they go as begin- 
ners; they go as men that have found out the weakness and 
sinfulness of their lives, and that ask, " Are there institutions, 
and ordinances, and means by which a man that is weak and 
sinful can be supported and helped ?" And open flies the door 
of the sanctuary, and forth sounds the voice of the minister, 
saying, " Come in hither ; here is God's curative Word, and if 
any man feels weak, here he will find help ; if any man feels 



32 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

sinful, here he will find sympathy, and instruction, and influ- 
ences to release him from sin and build him up in holiness." 

From Nature's quarries, deep and dark, 

With gracious aim he hews 
The stones, the spiritual stones, 

It pleaseth him to choose. 
Hard, rugged, shapeless at the first, 

Yet destined each to shine — 
Moulded beneath his patient hand — 

In purity divine. 

Lord, chisel, chasten, polish us, 

Each blemish wash away ; 
Cleanse us with purifying blood, 

In spotless robes array ; 
And thus, thine image on us stamped, 

Transport us to the shore 
Where not a stroke is ever felt, 

For none is needed more. 



JANUARY 14 : EVENING. 

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be ; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for 
we shall see him as he is. — 1 John iii., 2. 

Here we know not our own leaves, nor blossoms, nor fruit. 
This is not our soil; for, as the things that are sown in the 
winter, to be transplanted when the summer shall come, do not 
know their own home, nor recognize what they shall be, con- 
fined and shut in, so we are but being brought forward, to be 
turned out into full soil and branching room when God shall 
give us planting in heaven. It doth not yet appear what we 
shall be. We know not our glorified faculties. We know not 
what this sense of right, this conscience that gropes so darkly 
on earth, and punishes more than it gives reward — what it shall 
mean when God gives it liberty and sweet fruition. We know 
not, when the tide of God's nature shall roll divine beneficence 
through our faltering feeling of benevolence, what that life 
shall be then. We know not, when all our tastes are quickened ; 
when all that is in our worship and rejoicing therein shall have 
been purified and lifted up, and we ensphered among influences 
every one of which, touching with joy and music, rises yet to 
blessings more and more — we know not what that life shall be 
in all its amplitude and in all the infinite richness of its details; 



JANTJABY. 33 

but this we know, that it will be enough ; that we shall be 
" satisfied" when we awake in his likeness. 



JANUARY 15 : MORNING. 
A good conscience. — 1 Tim. i.,5. 

There is a great difference between a conscience enlightened 
by the average state of the society in which you live, and a con- 
science enlightened by the absolute truth of God's word. Many 
men think themselves to be conscientious because they do the 
things which are required by society, and avoid the things which 
are forbidden by society. This is very good as far as it goes, 
but it goes only a little way. 

No man can afford to set his chronometer by any thing ex- 
cept the sun. When he has done this he knows the exact time, 
and can be certain of the correctness of his calculations, and 
make a safe voyage. And when a man is making a voyage, 
not across the Atlantic or the Pacific, but across the sea of life, 
and is steering for the port of eternal happiness or woe, he can 
not afford to set his conscience by the conscience of every man 
that he happens to meet; he must hold it up to God's sun, "and 
set it by that. To set it by. any thing else than that will be 
neither safe nor sensible. Every body does so — that is no 
standard for conscience. The question should always be in 
your own mind, What is God's command ? and not, What is 
my neighbor's opinion? A scriptural conscience will oblige 
you to assert your religious independence perpetually. It will 
oblige you to go against fashion, to traverse the very maxims 
of society, and to oppose yourself to the ways of life of those 
around about you ; but it will be worth all that it will cost you. 

JANUARY 15 : EVENING. 

For we are saved by hope ; but hope that is seen is not hope ; for what a 
man seeth, why doth he yet hope for ? — Rom. viii., 24. 

You can leave your affairs to God when they go well ; can 
you when they go ill? You can rest quietly in God's hands 
when you are in health ; can you when sick ? You can trust 
C 



34 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

your family with God when you are comfortable and happy ; 
can you when you are perplexed how to get along, and your 
children are sick? 

But what is a trust in God good for that departs when you 
need it, and comes again only when you can get along without 
it ? What is a ship good for that is safe in a harbor, but un- 
safe out on the ocean ? What is a sail good for that is sound 
in a calm, but splits in the first wind? What patience is that 
which only lasts when there is nothing to bear? — courage, 
when there is no danger ? firmness, when there is no pressure ? 
hope, when every thing is before the eyes ? — what are all these 
worth ? But such is the trust which most Christians have in 
God. It has no virtue in it. It is like a light-house that burns 
only in daylight, and is extinguished at sundown. 

We need a trust that shall take hold upon God with such a 
large belief of his love and constancy as shall carry us right on 
over rough as well as over smooth ground ; right on through 
light and darkness ; right on through sickness, bereavement, 
loss, trouble, and long-pressing afflictions. At noon we need 
not a torch. It is in darkness that one should carry a light. 



JANUARY 16 : MORNING. 

And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it 
reached to heaven ; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on 
it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it.— Gen. xxviii., 12, 13, 

Shall your ladder, standing on the earth, reach to heaven ? 
or is your ladder, in its whole length, flat along the ground ? 
Stop one moment, and think, you who have started out, or are 
about starting. By ladder I mean your plans in life. Are they, 
all of them, lying upon the ground, or, though they begin there, 
do they really go up, and consciously take hold of the future 
and of the spiritual? Man must not avoid the world. Every 
ladder should stand upon the ground. The ground is a very 
good place to start from, but a very poor place to stop on. The 
Christian should be a man among men — joined in interest with 
them, sympathizing in their pursuits, active in daily duties; not 
above the enterprise, the thoughtfulness, and the proper amount 



JANUARY. 35 

of care that belong to worldly avocations. But woe to him that 
uses the earth for the earth ; whose plans are wholly material, 
beginning and ending in secularity and materiality; who means 
by fortune riches, and nothing else; who means by power car- 
nal, temporal power, and nothing else ; whose pleasure consists 
in that which addresses itself to the senses, and in nothing else. 
"Woe be to him who lays out a plan which has nothing in it but 
this world. At the very time when you plant your ladder on 
the ground, you must see to it that it is long enough to reach, 
and that it does reach and rest its top in heaven. This world 
and the other must be consciously connected in every true 
man's life, and along every man's ladder should be seen God's 
good angels ; that is, noble sentiments and generous purposes. 
You are not at liberty to execute a good plan with bad instru- 
ments. When you lay the course of your life out before you, 
and say to yourself that you propose to achieve in your mortal 
life such and such things, it is not a matter of indifference to 
you how you achieve them. God's angels must ascend and de- 
scend on your ladder, otherwise other and worse angels will. 

Do not, however, trust alone to those generous sentiments. 
Morality is not piety. In the vision of Jacob there was not 
alone the ladder between the earth and heaven, and the angels 
ascending and descending, but brightest, and best, and grand- 
est, and behind all the angels, stood God, saying to him, "I am 
thy father's God." Now high above all a man's plans, high 
above all his heroic moral resolves, there is to be a living trust 
in God ; and there is to be a soul-connection between ourselves 
or our business and our God. All our life long we must not be 
far from him. Piety must quicken morality ; then life will be 
safe, and will be successful. 



JANUARY 16 : EVENING. 

Henceforth I call you not servants ; for the servant knoweth not what his 
lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of 
my Father I have made known unto you, — John xv., 15. 

We are the children of the New Testament, and not of the 
Old. Woe be to us if, living in these later days, we find our- 
selves groping in the imperfections of the Old Testament, in- 



36 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

stead of springing up with all the vitality and supereminent 
manhood which belongs to the New Testament. We are the 
children of a living Savior. We are a brood over which he 
stretches his wings. He is our Brother, he is our elder Brother, 
he is our Savior, and our Deliverer, and our everlasting Friend. 
We ought to have more than a creed, more than an ordi- 
nance. We are not Christians because we keep the Sabbath 
day, nor because we pray, nor because we read the Bible, nor 
because we perform duties. They are Christians through whose 
soul is struck that vitalizing influence by which it can say 
" Father," and behold God. To be a disciple of the New Tes- 
tament is to have a living Head. It is to have a vital connec- 
tion with that Head. It is to be conscious, while all nature 
speaks of God, and while all the exercises of religion assist in- 
directly, that the main power of a true religion in the soul is 
the soul's connection with a living God. 



JANUARY 17 : MORNING. 

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask 
or think, acoording to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the 
Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. — Eph. 
iii.,20,21. 

Notice that this is an ascription to God of the habit and 
disposition of doing abundantly not only, but exceeding abun- 
dantly; and not only exceeding abundantly, but exceeding abun- 
dantly more than we ask or think — more than it is in man to 
want, or to know that he wants; more than he can compass 
by that ever-weaving thought that lies behind words ; and not 
only that, but "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
think, according to the power that worketh in us." When men's 
thoughts are touched ; when men's natures are awakened and 
inspired ; when, in their noblest moments, with their best fac- 
ulties under the divine influence, they are lifted up as in a trans- 
figuration, and behold all things in their plenitude of beauty, 
and glory, and truth — then, in those moments when God is 
working powerfully in them, and teaching them to think by 
teaching them to feel (and feeling is the truest mother of feel- 



JANUARY. 3Y 

ing) — even then it is said that God does exceeding abundantly 
more than we ask or think. When the sonl is on its wings ; 
when it follows the illumination of faith ; when it enters into 
the secret of divine existence; when it takes the noblest con- 
ception of its own destiny, and has the truest sense of its own 
wants ; when it is most cleansed from the selfishness of the 
earth — from its pride, from its vanity — and is in nearest sym- 
pathy with those things which make heaven, then will it speak 
till language shall fail, and then will the words flow on till 
thoughts fail, and feeling will flow still beyond thought ; yet 
still beyond that, God does for us, not merely up to the measure 
of our thinking and asking, but exceeding abundantly beyond 
it. Language can give no farther conception of the ampli- 
tude of divine generosity than is conveyed in such words as 
these. 



JANUARY 17 : EVENING. 

The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, 
who loved me and gave himself for me. — Gal. ii., 20. 

Do you live by faith of the Son of God, who loved you and 
gave himself for you ? Is your life for the secular present or 
for a glorious future? Are all your aims and ambitions cen- 
tred in this earthly horizon ? Are you living for this world — 
for its gifts and goods, for its friendships and joys, for its am- 
bitions, its power, its pleasures ? Are these the whole ? Is the 
world clear and vivid, and is the horizon-line the end of any 
thing distinct, and all that is beyond nebulous, vague, some- 
thing yet to be revealed? Or is heaven clear? is God real? 
is the future the sphere in which your thoughts move ? 



JANUARY 18 : MORNING. 

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou 
shouldest keep them from the evil. — John xvii. , 15. 

Virtues and graces are not wrought out in pews, but in sec- 
ular employments. You are to follow out the great events of 
this world. You are to build up society, the household, and 



38 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

property in such a way that, while the outside is being built, 
the inside will be built also. Is it hard work, and is the re- 
muneration long delayed ? Patience and meekness ! Is it 
work among selfish men ? Love and beneficence ! Is it work 
that seems to require great outlay, and to promise little in- 
come ? Disinterestedness ! Is it work such that you have to 
maintain your steadfastness, often and often, by a martyr spirit 
for the truth ? Long-suffering ! These are the very schools in 
which God works out moral qualities in you. No man works 
out his piety on Sunday and at church. Here is where you get 
your chart directed and your compass pointed, here is where 
you get your lesson ; but in your daily business God works out 
your moral qualities. For the way to use this world is to use 
it so as to work out those qualities, so as to accumulate a store 
of Christian manliness in us. We are to employ the material 
agencies by which we are surrounded so that while we are 
serving the outward life it shall be serving us a great deal 
more. The man that works right outwardly is the man that 
is built up inwardly; just as he that teaches children is taught 
more than he teaches. For I think our children bring us up 
more than we do them. And all parents that think what their 
children have done for them must feel that in some sense the 
father and mother should bow down to the children. If you 
serve the instrument well, it will serve you well ; and no man 
can serve this life well unless by it he hopes to be served in 
the life to come. 



JANUARY 18 : EVENING. 
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.— Psalm 1., 23. 

How shall a man praise God who seems to himself to be in 
continuous trouble? Look at the history of David, and see 
how you will do it. I think some of the most wondrous of his 
Psalms are those that begin in supplication. He says, for in- 
stance, " All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me ; all 
mine enemies are upon me ; dost thou not care for me ?" and 
then, having exhausted the language of supplication, he breaks 
out into triumph, and says, " I will praise thee." It seems as 
though there rose up over the horizon to him the bright star 



JAN U AMY. 39 

of Christ, and as though the light of it kindled in his soul glad- 
ness and peace that he could not refrain from giving expression 
to. You will find that in some of the psalms the soul begins 
in a minor key, and by-and-by rises to the major key; and then 
flies away, and sings as it flies. 

Now, if a man is in trouble, let him go to God in his trouble 
till he gets a sense of the divine loving, pitying, sympathetic 
nature, and see if there does not spring up in him a spirit of 
praise. And whenever you feel an impulse to praise, give it 
wings. Do not lose a chance to praise. It is precious to the 
soul. 



JANUARY 19 : MORNING. 

"When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth 
not the cry of the humble. — Psalm ix. , 12. 

Answering does not always stand next door to petition. 
Prayers, however, are never forgotten when they go up before 
the faithful One. Long after we have forgotten them, God re- 
members them. Prayers are seeds ; and as air - plants root 
themselves up in trees, and then grow by reaching down to- 
ward the earth, so prayers, methinks, root themselves up in 
heaven, and then grow down toward us. They sometimes 
have a long growth before they reach us and blossom, but 
they do it sooner or later. Of the thousands and thousands 
of petitions uttered by God's people, some are answered the 
same day, some the same week, some the same month, and 
some the same year in which they are uttered ; and some are 
not answered till years pass after their utterance. Blessed be 
God that it should be so. It indicates that the divine admin- 
istration is not a meagre administration. "I will, therefore, 
that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands without 
wrath and doubting." 

JANUARY 19 : EVENING. 
There is but a step between me and death. — 1 Sam. xx., 3. 
Sometimes we long to die, because we are tired of our liv- 
ing ; sometimes we are willing to- die, as we say, because it will 



40 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

be the end of sin ; sometimes we wish to die because the heart 
calls out with unutterable longing for those who have gone be- 
fore; sometimes we wish to die because we are filled with a 
not unnatural nor unheroic fervor, and would fain walk among 
the called, the sons of God. How many of us feel that heaven 
is sweet, because at last it will bring the sweetness and summer 
of love. How many of us mourn over our wants, and weep in 
contrition day by day because we are so wanting in the spirit 
of love and of Christ. How many of us wish for death, because 
at last it will bring us into that which our soul most desires, 
more than honor, riches, or all that the world can give. Time 
is short, and but a veil separates you from the world to come. 
You stand perhaps so near that, if you knew it, by reaching 
out your hand, as one might say, you could lay it upon the 
very throne of God. 

Father, perfect my trust, 

Strengthen the might of my faith ; 
Let me feel as I would when I. stand 

On the brink of the shore of death — 

Feel as I would when my feet 

Are slipping over the brink ; 
For it may be I'm nearer home, 

Nearer now than I think. 



JANUARY 20: MORNING. 

But ye 6hall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.— 
Acts i., 8. 

Do you suppose a parent dislikes to see real vigor, and joy, 
and elasticity, and genius, and attainment, and capacity in his 
children ? Is there any thing that makes a parent happier than 
to see, so long as it is good, the utmost growth and develop- 
ment in his children ? If their powers are not perverted, the 
more they expand the more satisfaction does the parent derive 
from them. And does God, who is more than any earthly fa- 
ther, love dry and withered natures, or full and joyful ones, 
that are pouring out the freshness of their life ? Be not a 
gloomy-eyed, twilight -faced, bat-like Christian, hovering be- 
tween night and day. Be not a Christian parsimonious of joy, 
and full of tears and sadness. Do not attempt to be a Chris- 



JAJSUAMY. 4 1 

tian after the pattern of the ascetic. "The kingdom of God is 
not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy" — 
righteousness of rectitude and integrity, peace which God gives 
by the regulation of man's nature, and joy which is the reflec- 
tion of heaven from the burnished experiences of an enlight- 
ened soul. 



JAMTABY 20 : EVENING. 

They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came* 
not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. — Luke v., 31, 32. 

God does not look down on the world, saying, " Men are all 
sinful ; you are doing wrong ; stop doing it, and I will look 
smilingly upon you." God so loved the world when it was ly- 
ing in wickedness, before it had made any attainment in right- 
eousness, that he gave his Son to die for it. While we were' 
yet enemies to him, God poured out his all-inspiring love upon 
us, to draw us toward him. As the atmosphere of the globe, 
sunlit and sun-warmed, is full of influences that give life and 
health to the plant, so the atmosphere of the soul, permeated 
by the love of Christ Jesus, is full of influences that vivify and 
strengthen the higher faculties. That which Christ means by 
faith in him is that sense of his love, and patience, and good- 
ness which enables a man, though he comes short of what he 
ought to be and ought to do, to go to the Savior and say, " I 
know that thou lovest me still." A feeling of certainty of his 
goodness toward you, no matter how poor you are — that is the 
faith that Christ wants. That faith which begins little by lit- 
tle to work by love — that is the faith that disenthralls, that is 
the faith that sanctifies and perfects. 



JANUARY 21 : MORNING. 

I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which 
no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. — Rev. ii., 17. 

In the Orient precious stones were frequently made into sig- 
net rings, and, as such, they carried authority, because they 
suggested the personal identity of the wearer.. They were 



42 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

also presents given as tokens of ordinary regard by neighbor 
to neighbor, or friend to friend ; or else they were bestowed as 
honors. Where a prince or a monarch desired to confer the 
highest testimony of his appreciation of one that had served 
him or the kingdom, he gave him a precious stone, with his 
name cut on it. But a more precious use of these stones was 
as love-tokens, and in this case they were cut with mystic sym- 
bols. As two lovers agree upon names the meaning of which 
is known only to themselves, or as they speak to each other in 
endearing terms which belong to them severally, not in bap- 
tism, not in common parlance, but by the agreement of the 
heart, so it was customary to cut in stones names or initials 
which no one could understand but the one who gave it and 
the one to whom it was given. 

Now these two uses of the precious stones are blended in the 
figure of the text. God says, "I am the eternal King, and I am 
the eternal Lover, and to him that is faithful to me, and that 
overcometh, I will give, as a token of my love and honoring, a 
white stone." What is meant by a white stone I do not know, 
but I prefer to think that it was an opal, the most human of all 
stones. The diamond is the more spiritual; there is less of 
color and more of suggestion in it; but the opal has in it more 
sympathy, more feeling, more wondrous beauty, more of those 
moods that belong to the human heart ; and of all the stones 
that are worn to signify human affection, none is to be . com- 
pared to the opal. And methinks, when God makes this prom- 
ise of the white stone, it is as if he said, " I will cut your love- 
name in an opal, and as your King and Lover I will give it to 
you, and no man shall know the meaning of that name but you 
yourself." 

JANUARY 21 : EVENING. 

For our light affliction, which is hut for a moment, worketh for us a far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.— 2 Cor. iv., 17. 

If in Kansas the careful husbandman, whose starving cattle 
have but a faint chance of living the winter through, sees a 
wisp of straw, a handful of stalks, or a particle of hay being 
wasted, it sorely grieves him. He is so near to the edge of 



JAJSUAKX. 43 

starvation that he can not afford to have any thing wasted. 
But go into Illinois and Indiana, where all these things are 
abundant, and where the herds are their own harvestmen, and 
tramp down a thousand times more than they eat, and the 
farmer, when he sees the stack gnawed and scattered around 
knee-deep, and being wasted, says, " There is no need of my 
saving such little things ; they are mere trifles ; I have so much 
that I do not know what to do with it." 

The apostle, arguing according to the same principle, says, 
" What is a little waste here ? The rinds and crumbs of life — 
a little sorrow ; a little loss ; a little contempt ; a few persecu- 
tions, and afflictions, and troubles — what are these in the great 
circle of God's eternal world ? There I am rich and honorable ; 
and what difference does it make if here I am the offscouring 
of the world ?" 

If we could only bring this principle home to ourselves, it 
would act upon us as it did upon the apostle. 

Surely yon heaven, where angels see God's face, 

Is not so distant as we deem 
From this low earth ! Tis but a little space, 

The narrow crossing of a slender stream ; 
'Tis but a veil, which winds might blow aside : 
Yes, these are all that us of earth divide 
From the bright dwelling of the glorified — 

The land of which I dream ! 

This life of ours, these lingering years of earth, 

Are briefer, swifter than they seem ; 
A little while, and the great second birth 

Of time shall come, the prophet's ancient theme ! 
Then he, the King, the Judge, at length shall come, 
And for this desert, where we sadly roam, 
Shall give the kingdom for our endless home — 

The land of which I dream ! 



JANUARY 22: MORNING. 

Pray for us : for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing 
to live honestly.— Hebrews xiii., 18. 

Are you willing to live honestly? I do not ask whether 
you think that honesty is better than dishonesty. I do not 
ask whether you think it is your duty to be honest, or whether 
you prefer to be so. For the sake of being honest, are you will- 



44 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

ing to go slower, and to let that man get ahead of you ? Are 
you willing to live with moderation because you must be hon- 
est ? Are you willing to lay aside pride and selfishness because 
you must be honest ? Are you willing to be patient and long- 
sufiering because you must be honest ? Are you willing to do 
without wealth, even, because you must be honest ? Cast away 
the miserable precedents of evil men. Take a larger view of 
what Christian manhood requires of you. Do not measure by 
the pattern of other men's thoughts and feelings, but listen to 
the counsels of God. Remember that you are a child of eter- 
nity. It will not be long before both the hope and the fear of 
this world will be like the mists of last year, that have gone 
down and are forgotten. It can not be long before you and I 
will have dropped the body, and with it all its feverish frets 
and vexations, and that part of us that is immortal will stand 
in the eternal Presence. Oh, in thinking of your life, think of 
that part which belongs to Christ ; think of that part which 
belongs to God the Father ; think of that part which is quick- 
ened by the Holy Spirit, and scorn the lower measures of char- 
acter that you find among beggarly men. Take your concep- 
tions of right, and duty, and Christian manhood from the inspi- 
rations of God. 



JANUARY 22 : EVENING. 

For he knoweth our frame; lie remembereth that we are dust. — Psalm 
ciii., 14. 

There is One that knows you altogether. If you do not 
know how to disentangle the skein of your feelings ; if you do 
not know how to analyze and trace to their source your mo- 
tives, there is One who knows how to do it perfectly. If you 
seem to yourself to be put where you meet more difficulties 
than you know how to get along with, there is One who has 
been tried in every point as you are, and yet without sin. If 
you are in a way of temptation, and can find no door of escape, 
there is One who will make provision for your release, that you 
may not be overcome. 

This amazing, this thorough insight into every part of our 
life, is accompanied with compassion. Out of this comes the 



JANUARY. 45 

divine mercy. Christ says, " I know you entirely ; so why do 
you try to hide or to cover up any thing that belongs to your 
being ? Do men blame you often ? I do not. Do men exon- 
erate you ? Oh, my child, I do not. What is imperfection I 
know, as you can not tell. I have been put into life to suffer 
the trials that make you sin, in Qrder that I might be your High- 
priest, your Counselor, your Atoning Friend. Draw near to me, 
therefore ; draw near to me, because I know you so thoroughly. 
There is no use in your staying away and trying to hide your 
sin ; rather confess it. I have sympathy with you in your im- 
perfection, in your infirmity, and in your sin ; and I will for- 
give you, strengthen you, and ripen, and mature, and perfect 
you." 



JANUARY 23: MORNING. 
Let brotherly love continue. — Hebrews xiii., 1. 

Theee can be nothing more a violation of the spirit of the 
Bible, of the law of God, of the feelings of Christ ; nothing 
more an affront and offense before heaven, than feelings of con- 
tempt, bitterness, or hatred toward men. Even indifference and 
coldness are culpable. Sympathy with mankind is a universal 
duty. Christ taught us that every man is our neighbor. We 
are commanded, as we have opportunity, to do good unto all 
men. There should be an abiding disposition of benevolence, 
out of which should spring incessant acts of kindness. When 
the waters of an inexhaustible spring have been conveyed 
through pipes to your dwelling, it needs only that you should 
open the vent, and it will gush forth with power and copious- 
ness by its own native force. Even when it is not flowing, it 
is pressing and urging itself, and longing to flow. Left to it- 
self, night and day it would gush. It must be hindered, it 
must be stopped, but it needs never to be solicited. There is 
a well-spring of love which God sinks in the human soul, which 
throbs without ceasing, and strives to give itself forth. From 
such a reservoir we need no slow-descending and heavy-rising 
bucket ; we need no forcing-pump, nor instrument of power of 
any sort. It is its nature to rise up, to go out. The kindness 



40 



MORNING AND EVENING ENERGISES. 



is always there, always ready and waiting. Only opportunity 
is needed. 



JANUARY 23 : EVENING. 

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : 
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. — Matt, xi., 29. 

Where can you lay your finger upon a single instance in 
which Christ acted as though he was proud? And yet you 
never had a temptation to make you proud that was at all to 
be compared with the temptations to pride which were brought 
to bear upon Christ. Where can you lay your finger upon a 
single instance in which Christ seemed to savor of selfishness ? 
And yet you have never had sudden flaming motives to selfish- 
ness that were at all to be compared with those which Christ 
had. Where can you lay your finger upon a single instance 
where Christ gave vent to venom, or invective, or ill temper ? 
And yet you have never had provocatives to these things which 
were at all to be compared with those which Christ had. He 
was in all points tempted like as we are. That is, in all his fac- 
ulties, in his reason, in his moral sentiments, in his affections, in 
his passions, in every thing that belongs to a spirit incased in 
a mortal body, he felt the pressure of temptation, and yet not 
in one single instance did he sin. 

Shall Christ be humble, and his disciples not ? Shall he be 
visited with suggestions of evil from the adversary, and we 
count ourselves too good to be visited with any such sugges- 
tions ? 

Oh, I am weak ; my feeble spirit 

Shrinks from life's task in wild dismay ; 
Yet not that thou that task wouldst spare it, 

My Father, do I dare to pray. 



JANUARY U: MORNING. 
I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, 
the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. — John 
xv., 5. 

A prisoner in a dungeon may have but one small window, 
and that far up and out of the way of the sun, while for months 



and months not one single day does the yellow sun send a sol- 
itary ray through the poor little window. But at length, in 
changing its place in the heavens, there conies a day in which, 
to his surprise and joy, a flash of light springs through and 
quivers on the wall. It vibrates upon his heart still more 
tremulously than on the wall. Even this much gives joy. It 
warms nothing, and lights but little, but it brings back summer 
to his soul. It tells him that the sun is not dead, but walks the 
heavens yet. That single ray speaks of fields, of trees, of birds, 
and of the whole blue heavens ! So is it often in life. It is in 
the power of one blessed thought, in a truly Christian heart, to 
send light and joy for hours and days. But that is not enough. 
It is not enough for Christian growth or Christian nourishment 
that despondency sometimes hopes, and darkness sometimes 
smiles into light. The whiteness of heavenly robes is the light 
which they reflect from the face of God. A Christian is to bear 
much fruit. This he can not, unless he abides in summer. For 
mere relief, even a casual visit of God's grace is potential ; but 
for fruit — much fruit, and ripened fruit — nothing will suffice but 
the whole summer's sun. 



JANUARYS: EVENING. 

I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring ; 
and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. 
— Isaiah xliv. , 3, 4. , 

What is the hope of parents in regard to the misconduct of 
their children ? It is to work with them assiduously, and to 
work in the spirit of love ; and, when the results do not follow 
immediately, to have patience. Is your child fifteen years old ? 
Then there are ten years more for him; hold on for those ten 
years, and do not be discouraged. "Ah !" you say, "but some 
are farther along than that." Yes, and in all such cases you 
must let your patience and your faith in God overmaster the 
devil's power and the devil's temptations. Say to the foul 
spirit that seems to possess your children, " I will master you 
yet by my confidence in God. My children are his, and by as 
much as they are in peril, by so much I will hold out, and will 
not give up my faith." The faith of the parent will save the 



48 



MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



child in hundreds and hundreds of instances where, if the par- 
ent's faith should fail, the child would go down and be de- 
stroyed. It is the bridge on which the child is to walk over 
the valley of destruction to the kingdom of glory. Then do 
not be discouraged about your family. Have faith, and they 
shall be preserved. 

Savior ! who thy flock art feeding 

With the shepherd's kindest care, 
All the feeble gently leading, 

While the lambs thy bosom share ; 

Now, these little ones receiving, 

Fold them in thy gracious arm ; 
There we know, thy word believing, 

Only there secure from harm. 

Never, from thy pasture roving, 

Let them be the lion's prey ; 
Let thy tenderness, so loving, 

Keep them all life's dangerous way. 



JANUARY 25 : MORNING. 

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; 
and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side ; and be not faithless, 
but believing. — John xx., 27. 

The thought of Christ, and the glory of his helpfulness, and 
the power of his love, and the endlessness of his grace, may 
save every man from doubt and despondency; but the moment 
a man thinks of himself, he finds that he is going down, down, 
down. The barometer sinks the moment a man begins to think 
of himself, and rises the moment he begins to think of Christ. 
Our hope is in him, our help is in him, and our life is in him. 
In him is no variableness nor shadow of turning. In him is no 
doubt and no fear, for perfect love casts out fear. And they 
that know how to forget themselves, they that count them- 
selves to be unworthy sinners, and Christ to be a justifying 
Savior, have settled the whole question in that one act by 
which they say, " Lost, undone, and sinful though we are, thou 
canst love a sinner ; save me because I am sinful. Take me 
while sinning to save me from sinning." That ends it, and 
there is no more room for doubt. " I am persuaded that nei- 
ther death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 



49 



nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, 
nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the 
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." — Amen, and 



JANUARY 25 : EVENING. 
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he 
shall go no more out. — Rev. iii., 12. 

If there is any thing in this world that seems to have a sol- 
itary time of it, it is a pillar holding up something, and stand- 
ing still forever. If there is any thing in the world that an 
active, nervous person — a person full of resources — would rath- 
er be excused from taking as a reward, it is being set in a wall 
of stone, one's self a stone, and standing there to all eternity. 
Of course it was not meant to strike you in that way. This 
figure arose from the caryatides. It was customary to carve 
columns or pillars in the form of slaves — men and women — in 
some of the earlier temples, as in the Acropolis at Athens. 
Particularly those columns that stand back upon a wall, and 
sustain a portico, cornice, or something of that kind, are covered 
with figures of men holding the load upon their heads. What- 
ever may be the force and attractiveness of this figure, one 
thing is certain, namely, that the quality of patient endurance 
is one which God, by his providence, seeks to develop very 
largely in the Church. And it is very certain that it is, in the 
sight of God, among the most noble and eminent of qualities. 
Persons think, " If I could only do something, then I should 
feel that I was worth something ; but I can not do any thing." 
They forget that there is a silent work going on in the provi- 
dence of God in a man's life, and that, though it is not trum- 
peted abroad, it is more effective than what he did would be 
if he were producing mere physical results on a far larger 
scale. 

A gentle angel walketh throughout a world of woe, 
With messages of mercy to mourning hearts below ; 
His peaceful smile invites them to love and to confide ; 
Oh, follow in his footsteps, keep closely by his side. 

He will not always answer thy questions and thy fear ; 
His watchword is, "Be patient, the journey's end is near." 
And ever through the toilsome way he tells of joys to come, 
And points the pilgrim to his rest, the wand'rer to his home. 

D 



50 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JANUARY 26 : MORNING. 

For riches are not forever: and doth the crown endure to every genera- 
tion f—Prov. xxvii., 24. 

"When Sheridan had bought him a beautiful place, he invited 
old Dr. Johnson to go and see it. The stern old cynic went, 
and looked through the house and the library, and tasted the 
wine from the cellar, and walked in the garden, and said noth- 
ing, till Sheridan asked him, "Well, doctor, what do you think 
of it?" "Ah !" said he, "these are the things that make death 
terrible." 

There is many a man that has worked all his life to heap up 
pleasures, and that stands shivering, and shuddering, and say- 
ing, " I can not bear to die and leave them all." But die and 
leave them all you will. No man that has undertaken to make 
himself happy by seeking any thing in this world has succeed- 
ed; no such man can be happy. But he that has lived for love, 
purity, duty, heaven, and immortality will be happy under all 
circumstances. When sickness comes to him, Christ the Com- 
forter comes with it. When sorrows come, then the bow of 
promise comes. And when death itself comes, what is it but 
the hand of God sent to take him home ? Dying is vacation, 
and joy, and happiness. He only is happy who knows how to 
be one with Christ, to suffer with him, and to live with him 
here for that joy and peace that he gives. As the body decays, 
as its powers fade away, as our earthjy honors recede, our heav- 
enly treasures should appear. And remember that out of love 
come the choicest pearls. And when earthly loves all perish, 
and are at the grave what shells are whose fish are dead, and 
that are rolled by the waves out upon the shore, then they that 
have lived for Christ in his spirit know that their life has just 
begun. They know that their youth is renewed when the pulse 
is fading out. We live when we die. Here we are exiles igno- 
minious. Beyond the grave we are crowned kings and priests 
unto God. 



JANUARY. 



51 



JANUARY 26: EVENING. 
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? — Matt, xxvii. , 46. 

It often rimes happens that Christians, when they are tried, 
and resort in faith to prayer and the Word of God, feel very 
much cast down because they can get no consolation there- 
from. When, in times of distress and temptation, they go to 
God for help, and his face is hidden from them, and they re- 
ceive no reply to their prayer, they seem to themselves to be 
forgotten and forsaken, and that is the hardest of all for them 
to bear. And yet, when our Savior bowed in Gethsemane, he, 
too, seemed to himself to be forgotten and forsaken of his Fa- 
ther; and when, after having been carried through the mockery 
of a trial, he was lifted up upon the cross, his very expiring an- 
guish was this : "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 
In that extremity of our Savior's life God hid his face from him. 
And shall our Master bear the hiding of God's face, and we his 
servants be unwilling to bear our part of such experiences ? 

Savior ! our human form once weai-ing, 

Help, by the memory of that day 
When, painfully thy dark cross bearing, 

E'en for a time thy strength gave way. 

Beneath a lighter burden sinking, 

Jesus, I cast myself on thee ; 
Forgive, forgive this useless shrinking 
From trials that I know must be. 



JANUARY 27 : MORNING. 

Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine 
hand is power and might ; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give 
strength unto all. — 1 Chron. xxix., 12. 

When a father teaches his boy to swim, he puts him into the 
water, and stands by him with a hand that is just ready to sus- 
tain him if he should begin to sink. The father does not pro- 
pose to help the boy so long as he can help himself, because his 
object is to teach him to rely upon the exertion of his own pow- 
ers ; but if he is in danger of sinking, he will catch him. 

There is a Father's hand in every man's affairs. When we 



52 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

are plunged, as it were, into boiling waters, there is a Father 
that stands by us, as the father stands by his boy in the stream, 
to help us when we need help. If there is one truth taught in 
the New Testament more than another, it is that there is a 
providence that takes care of men when they can not take 
care of themselves. 

" For we have not a high-priest which can not be touched 
with the feeling of ou.r infirmities ; but was in all points tempt- 
ed like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come bold- 
ly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find 
grace to help in time of need." Christ feels for every one of 
us. We are going through life on purpose that we may meet 
him who is a Guide and a Captain. We are going through life 
under his convoy. It is not, therefore, a providence of laws 
that we are subject to. There is a Being, and that Being is a 
Savior, and that Savior is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is super- 
vising whatever relates to our welfare. 

JANUARY 27 : EVENING. 

But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the 
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels.— Heb. xii., 22. 

We are brought " to an innumerable company of angels" — 
now invisible, nevertheless real. The declaration is not that 
when we die we shall go where angels live, but that when we 
come into the new dispensation, by the true spirit of faith, we 
then come to the " general assembly ;" to the " Church of the 
First-born ;" to an " innumerable company of angels." You 
have come to them. Where? It does not matter whether 
you see them — they see you. It does not matter whether you 
recognize them, so far as your comfort and use of them is con- 
cerned. The mere fact itself stands. You do not see in the 
summer morning the flight of those birds that fill all the bush- 
es and all the orchard trees; but they are there, and though 
you do not see their coming, you hear their songs afterward. It 
does not matter whether you have ministered to you yet those 
perceptions by which you perceive angelic existence. The fact 
that we want to bear in mind is that we are environed by 
them ; that we move in their midst. How, where, what the 



JANUARY. 



53 



philosophy is, whether it be spiritual philosophy, no man can 
tell, and they least that think they know most about it. The 
fact which we prize and lay hold of is this : that angelic min- 
istration is a part, not of the heavenly state, but of the univer- 
sal condition of men ; and that, as soon as we become Christ's, 
we come not only to the home of the living God, but to the 
" innumerable company of angels." 

Sweet souls around us ! watch us still ; 

Press nearer to our side ; 
Into our thoughts, into our prayers, 

With gentle helpings glide. 

Let death between us be as naught, 

A dried and vanished stream ; 
Your joy be the reality, 

Our suffering life the dream. 



JANUARYS; MORNING. 
Tour garments are moth-eaten.— James v., 2. 

A man may be preserved from crimes and from great vices, 
and yet have his character moth-eaten. A little tooth, which 
is almost too small for the microscope, may nevertheless be 
large enough to cut one thread, and another thread, and an- 
other thread ; and when you have begun to cut threads, you 
have begun to make holes ; and when you have begun to make 
holes, the destruction of the garment is at hand. So a charac- 
ter that is moth-eaten, that has begun to be pierced by petty 
sins and vices, is weakened, and is being prepared for destruc- 
tion. 

Search, therefore, and see whether your garments are moth- 
eaten. "We are told in the Apocalypse to take care of our gar- 
ments, that no man may take them from us. Beware lest men 
steal your garments ; beware lest the elements consume them ; 
but, most of all, beware lest they become moth-eaten. 

Beware of robber passions, of intrusive temptations, of those 
sympathetic sins which draw men by their better affections to 
their worst ends. Beware of the wind, of the rain, of the sea, 
of savage beasts, and of summer and winter in the soul. Be- 
ware also of moths, of foibles, of faults, of little, mean, sharp- 
toothed sins, that cut, and eat, and destroy the garment. 



54 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Many a man keeps the fair proportions of manhood in life, 
and seems to be without crime, or vice, or great fault, who is 
so pierced, and channeled, and granulated, and eaten by petty 
faults, that when he is lifted up in the eternal world, like a gar- 
ment that is moth-eaten, he will fall to pieces and be fit only 
for eternal burning. " Your garments are moth-eaten." There 
is in that a declaration as terrible as in that other sentence 
which God shall pronounce upon those who reject him, and 
with effrontery of wickedness array themselves on the side of 
his open enemies. May God keep us from secret sins. 

JANUARYS: EVENING. 

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the 
furnace of affliction. — Isaiah xlviii. , 10. 

There are men in God's army suffering wh£t all soldiers 
suffer, deprivation and hardship on every side ; the missiles of 
the enemy come hurling in, asking no leave. But by life's bat- 
tle there is being wrought out in them a nobler character, an 
enfranchised will, a purified courage, a sweeter resignation, an 
invincible trust in God, and thus they are being prepared to 
rise superior to their circumstances, and to evince a divinely- 
kindled manhood. Be not, then, easily discouraged by opposi- 
tion, nor sit down ignominiously and cry because the way is 
not made smooth before you. It is this opposition which tests 
your character and which forms it. Do not count yourself un- 
worthy of suffering with Christ that the divine nature may be 
developed in you. 

This world is a glorious workshop for making men. The 
fire is hot enough to make you a white heat, and the anvil is 
broad enough to turn you into such shapes as God wants. Be 
ye men, therefore, and count nothing of experience amiss, 
whether it be of joy or of sorrow, remembering that all things 
work together for the good of those that love the Lord. Love 
him, and so be victorious over life ; for he that conquers life 
shall find death itself conquered, and himself a victor before 
God and his angels. 



JANUARY. 55 



Pain's furnace-heat within me quivers, 
God's breath upon the flame doth blow, 

And all my heart in anguish shivers, 
And trembles at the fiery glow ; 

And yet I whisper — as God will, 

And in his hottest fire hold still. 

He comes, and lays my heart, all heated, 
On the hard anvil, minded so 

Into his own fair shape to beat it 

With his great hammer, blow on blow ; 

And yet I whisper — as God will, 

And at his heaviest blows hold still. 



JANUARY 29 : MORNING. 
Pray without ceasing.— 1 Thess. v., 17. 

One may perceive at a glance how exceedingly wide is the 
scope of prayer. 

It will begin with a supplication for our temporal wants. 
They are first felt, and felt longest ; and, by the greatest num- 
ber of the world, felt chiefly. Next higher will come petitions 
for relief from trouble, for remedy, for shelter in danger. In 
this, too, the soul may exercise its own liberty ; there are no 
metes nor bounds. Then, next, prayer is drawn forth by heart- 
sorrow. A wounded spirit, a bruised heart, naturally turns for 
confidence and soothing toward God. Its prayer may be sup- 
plication for help, or it may be only recitation for the sake of 
peace. Next, and far higher, prayer becomes the resource of a 
heart exercised for its own religious growth. It is the cry for 
help against temptation. It is the voice of confession. It is a 
recital of sins committed, and a plaint of sorrow for them. It 
is the soul's liberty to go to its Father with all its growing 
pains, its labor and travail in spiritual things. Prayer, also, to 
one who lives in daily service of God, oftentimes takes the form 
of simple communion, the spreading out of our life to one who 
is worthy, whom we love and trust, not for sake of any special 
advice, nor for sake of special help, but for the heart-rest which 
there is in the thing itself. For none love confidences so much 
as they who rarely have them. None love to speak so much, 
when the mood of speaking comes, as they who are naturally 
taciturn. None love to lean and recline entirely upon another 



56 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

so much as strong natures that ordinarily do not lean at all. 
And so the heart that goes shaded and shut, that hides its 
thoughts and dreads the knowledge of men's eyes, flings itself 
wide open to the eye of God. 

JANUARY 29 : EVENING. 

Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the 
earth also, with all that therein is. — Deut. x., 14. 

I see a mother that, as the twilight falls and the baby sleeps, 
and because it sleeps out of her arms, goes about gathering 
from the floor its playthings, and carries them to the closet, 
and carries away the vestments that have been cast down, and 
stirring the fire, sweeping up the hearth, winding the clock, 
and gathering up dispersed books, she hums to herself low mel- 
odies as she moves about the room, until the whole place is 
once again neat, and clean, and in order. Why is it that the 
room is so precious to her ? Is it because there is such beauti- 
ful paper on the walls? because there is # so goodly a carpet on 
the floor? because the furniture in the room is so pleasing to 
the eye ? All these are nothing in her estimation except as 
servants of that little creature of hers — the baby in the cradle. 
She says, "All these things serve my heart while I rock my 
child." The whole round globe is but a cradle, and our God 
rocks it, and regards all things, even the world itself, as so 
many instruments for the promotion of our welfare. When he 
makes the tempest, the pestilence, or the storm, when he causes 
ages in their revolutions to change the world, it is all to serve 
his own heart through his children — men. When we are walk- 
ing through this world, we are not walking through long files 
of laws that have no design; we are walking through a world 
that has natural laws, which we must both know and observe ; 
yet these must have their master, and Christ is he. And all 
of these are made to be our servants because we are God's 
children. 

I know I might have seen in every star 

That sheds its light on me, 
A lamp of thine, set out to guide from far 

My steps toward home and thee — 



JANUARY. 57 

Have heard in streams with hending grasses clad, 

Which sparkled through the sod, 
The music of the river that makes glad 

The city of our God — 

In flowers, plucked hut to wither in my hand, 

Or passed with lingering feet, 
Have read my Father's promise of a land 

Where flowers are still more sweet. 



JANUARY 30 : MORNING. 

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may he ahle to 
withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.— Eph.es. vi., 13. 

It is magnificent to see a man that is able, when he has done 
every thing, v to stand still and wait. There has been some 
standing still and waiting that was not so very sublime ; but 
there is a great deal of standing still and waiting that is sub- 
lime. If we but had the moral instincts to know it, there is 
nothing more sublime than the patience, and confidence, and 
hopefulness of Paul when he was in prison and unfriended, and 
when he could do nothing but stand and sing those immortal 
songs, which, being translated to us, have become part and par- 
cel of our legacy. 

A mother labors well with her son. She has not failed, since 
he could understand, to sow good seed, and water the soil in 
which she sowed them with her own tears, and give the sun of 
her own heart to pour the seasons upon his. But he has come 
to that Hell-gate of experience which every man is called to 
steer through between fifteen and twenty-five, and he swerves, 
running, apparently, first toward this shore and then toward 
that ; and she stands serene, and says, " I know what I have 
done. The child is God's. I can no longer reach him. I can 
only pray for him. But my soul knows that that child shall 
not be a wreck. He shall come out and be saved." She stands 
patient and calm ; and in the courage, faith, and patience of 
that mother's heart, waiting for God, there is a moral heroism 
such as no battle-field ever exhibited. 

Oh that we had more of this confidence ! Oh that we had 
more of it in the family, more of it in the Church, and more of 
it in our dear country ! Oh that we believed more firmly that 



58 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

the cause of God could not suffer, and that truth, and justice, 
and liberty would prevail, though the times were dark, and 
things looked threatening ! 



JANUARY 30 : EVENING. 
Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest. — Heb. iv.,11. 

Do not regret it if the eye grows dim. You will see better 
by-and-by. If the ear is growing heavy, do not be sorry. If 
your youth is passing, and your beauty is fading, do not mourn. 
If your hand trembles and your foot is unsteady with age, be 
not depressed in spirit. With every impediment, with every 
sign of the taking down of this tabernacle, remember that it is 
the striking the tent that the march may begin, and that when 
next you pitch your tabernacle it shall be on the undisturbed 
shore, and that there, with eyes unwet with tears, through an 
atmosphere undimmed by clouds, and before a God unveiled 
and never again to be wrapped in darkness — that there, looking 
back upon this world of ignorance, and suffering, and trouble, 
and upon the hardships of the way, you will, with full and dis- 
cerning reason, lift up your voice and give thanks to God, and 
say, " There was not one trouble too much ; there was not one 
burden too heavy; there was not one sorrow too piercing." 
And you will thank God, in that land, for the very things that 
wring tears from your eyes in this. 

Look, then, to that better land, out of all the trouble of the 
way ; sigh for it, pray for it, prepare for it, and enter into it. 

Dissolve from these bonds, that detain 

My soul from her portion in thee ; 
Ah ! strike off this adamant chain, 

And make me eternally free. 

When that happy era begins, 

When arrayed in thy glories I shine, 
Nor grieve any more by my sins 

The bosom on which I recline — 

Oh then, never more shall the fears, 

The trials, temptations, and woes, 
Which darken this valley of tears, 

Intrude on my blissful repose. 

Or, if yet remembered above, 

Remembrance no sadness shall raise ; 
They will be but new signs of thy love, 

New themes for my wonder and praise. 



JANUARY. 



59 



JANUARY 31 : HOBNING. 
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore 
such an one in the spirit of meekness ; considering thyself, lest thou also be 
tempted. — Gal. vi., 1. 

The man who has a true Christian spirit never takes delight 
in the faults of others. Does it not give you as exquisite pain 
to discover faults in those you love as to discover them in your- 
self? Do you not feel that you would give your own body and 
blood to save them from ruin ? So ought you to feel in respect 
to all your fellow-men. Their burdens should be your burdens, 
and their sorrows your sorrows. When a man is actuated by 
this spirit, how easy it is for him to go to others, and tell them 
kindly of their faults, and help them to rid themselves of them? 
Men usually will bear to be told their faults by a man who has 
this disposition, but never by ajaerson who has it not. 

Forget not thou hast often sinned, 

And sinful yet must be : 
Deal gently with the erring one, 

As God has dealt with thee. 



JANUARY 31 : EVENING. 

For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the 
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. — 2 Cor. iv., 11. 

Blessed are they that are able to see in their troubles such 
a resurrection of Christ that, in the joy they experience from 
the realization of the rising of the Sun of Righteousness upon 
them, they quite forget the troubles themselves. 

When once the disciples that watched had been permitted 
to gaze upon Christ, to clasp his hand, to worship him, where 
was the memory of their past trouble? What was their 
thought of the arrest, of the shameful trial, of the crucifixion, 
and death, and burial? These were all gone from their minds. 
As, when the morning comes, we are apt to forget the night 
out of which it came, so, when out of trouble comes new happi- 
ness, when out of affliction comes new joy, when out of the cru- 
cifixion of the lower passions comes purification, we are apt to 
forget the process through which this happiness, this joy, this 
purification came. As there can be no sepulchre which can af- 



60 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

ford consolation that hath not a Christ ready to be revealed in 
it, so there can be no sorrow from which we can well be deliv- 
ered that hath not in it a Christ ready to be revealed. 

Often when we are weakest we may be strongest, when we 
are most cast down we may be nearest the moment of being 
lifted up, when we are most oppressed we are nearest deliver- 
ance, when we are most cut off we are nearest being joined 
forever and ever to him who is life indeed and joy indeed. 



If thus we journey patiently through 

Each grief will make us dearer to our Lord ; 

But if we flee the cross in search of gladness, 
We can not shun his dread avenging sword. 

Oh, blessed they who hear the call, 

Who take the cross and follow, leaving all ! 

So help me, Lord, thy holy will to suffer, 
And still a learner at thy feet to be ; 

Give faith and patience when the way is rougher, 
And at the end a joyful victory. 

Thus grief itself is changed to song 

Ofttimes on earth, but evermore ere long. 



FEBRUARY 1 : MORNING. 

And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment 
unto thee, hut that which we had from the beginning, that we love one anoth- 
er. — 2 John, 5. 

This world's need is not condemnation, nor denunciation, nor 
exposition. What it needs is somebody to suffer for it. Inexpe- 
rience wants experience that is willing to bear with it till it 
learns. Hardness of heart wants softness of heart to teach it 
the quality of softness. Stumbling imperfection wants perfec- 
tion to take it by the hand, and lead it in the right way. We 
have had thunder enough, and sword enough, and dungeons 
enough to reform the world a thousand times, if mere justice 
or mere force would do it ; but these are not sufficient. The 
spirit which Christ manifested when, crowned with thorns, he 
suffered for others, is what we need. The mother-heart keeps 
alive in the world this secret of divinity ; but kings, judges, 
magistrates, warriors, fierce with justice, fill the world with the 
sufferings of punishment. Some quail, some resent, and many 
grow desperate. Still justice is proclaimed. As if justice it- 



FEBRUARY. 



61 



self was any thing but the birth of passions until it is the child 
of love ! As if the rude justice of the earlier developments of 
society was to be exalted above love, to limit it, define it, sub- 
ordinate it, and thus a mere leaf and stem arrogate superiority 
over that blossom and fruit for whose coming they were cre- 
ated. What we xant is an atmospheric power of development, 
like summer on a continent, to inspire growth away from pas- 
sion and toward love. Love is the mother of all things. Jus- 
tice and truth will spring from this divine weather in regal 
beauty and with hitherto unknown sweetness. We need soul- 
power. We need the power of God. We want God's creative 
power in Christ Jesus ; and that is the power of a pure and 
great nature to suffer for impure and little natures. 

FEBRUARY 1: EVENING. 
As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. — Isaiah Ixvi., 13. 

As a child, unknowing, turns to the bosom that feeds it, so 
my heart cries out for God. Though I have no clear and dis- 
tinct conception of the way in which his soul acts upon mine, 
I am conscious that I am comforted. If in this life we might 
have no comfort except that which comes from things that we 
understand perfectly, we should be of all men most miserable. 

In the night a child wakes, and, discovering that it is alone, 
cries out in terror, and the parent goes to it and lifts it up, and 
brings it to her own couch ; and it falls, dreaming, half crying 
and half smiling, into a sweet slumber by its mother's side. 
We, at best, like the child in its mother's arms, are not fully 
awake. We do not know what influences are acting on us, nor 
much about him that is working in us. All we know is that 
without God we die, and that when we lift ourselves toward 
that glorious, and, in this life, uninterpreted and uninterpreta- 
ble Being, our heart feels the divine power, and rejoices in it. 
I do not dislike, in its proper place, reason ; but reason shall 
not play despot over the heart. 

" So will I comfort you," as when a sobbing child 
Seeks sweet heart-comfort on its mother's breast, 
By her caresses fond unconsciously beguiled 
From memories of pain, soon sinks to rest. 



62 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



FEBRUARY 2: MORNING. 

For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the 
things that are sown in it to spring forth ; so the Lord God will cause right- 
eousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. — Isaiah lxi., 11. 

There is yet to come, in fuller measure, the down-shining in- 
spiration of God's Spirit, giving sensibility and power to all it 
touches; and the whole world is not only to come into that 
state in which men are born in favorable conditions individual- 
ly, but it is to come into that state in which they shall be con- 
federated into families, with sweeter affections, with truer con- 
ceptions of life, and with better ways of developing and mani- 
festing them. And this affection of the household is to be en- 
larged till family touches family, and neighborhoods are form- 
ed. And these neighborhoods are to open and bloom into each 
other, and are to be but parts of communities. And these com- 
munities are to express a finer taste, a sweeter philanthropy, 
a better, higher, and more noble justice. All the processes of 
society are to exhibit more of Christ ; so that at last the day 
shall come when in all the earth, like a man without a pain 
from head to foot, mankind shall be without a sadness, or a 
sigh, or a sorrow ; when the whole globe, in all its parts, shall 
be filled full of him who filleth all things, who is the head and 
animating brain of time and the world ; and the globe, no lon- 
ger singing a requiem, no longer singing of things gloomy and 
sad, clothed with light and inspired with joy, shall go chanting 
in its rounds, and the heaven and the earth shall sing together. 
And so the consolation shall come. 

FEBRUARY 2: EVENING. 

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days 
come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure 
in them. — Eccles. xii., 1. 

For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall ho also reap. — Gal. vi., 7. 

Old age is making haste ; and there are none of us that can 
be young long ; and many of us have already passed by our 
youth. Now, in the wisdom of God, the way to be happy in 
old age is the very way of being happy all our life. It should 



FEBRUARY. 63 

be borne in mind that in old age it is too late to mend; that 
then you must inhabit what you have built. Old age has the 
foundation of its joys and its sorrows laid in youth. You are 
building at twenty. Are you building for seventy ? A man's 
life is not like the contiguous cells in a bee's honey-comb ; it is 
more like the separate parts of a plant which unfolds out of 
itself, every part bearing relation to all that antecede. That 
which you do in youth is the root, and all the after parts, mid- 
dle age and old age, are the branches and the fruits, whose 
character the root will determine. 

See, link by link the chain is made, 
And pearl by pearl the costly braid ; 
The daily strand of hopes and fears 
Weaves up the woof of many years ! 
And well thy labor shall have sped 
If well thou weav'st the daily thread. 



FEBRUARYS: MORNING. 

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the 
brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. — 1 John iii., 14. 

Those who are drawn toward God are necessarily drawn to- 
ward each other; and therefore we do not need to seek in 
detail, and with anxious inquiries, to know how we shall be 
united to the good. Those that are united together in God, 
and that become sons of God, and heirs of God, and joint heirs 
with Christ, are in conditions to fit them to be in holy concord 
and immortal friendship. Blessed hope ! 

Here is cacophony, here are harsh-sounding discords, here are 
misunderstandings piled high between men, here are repellen- 
cies and antipathies, here are endless disconnections and sepa- 
rations ; but if we take hold of this common faith, and with 
zeal and ardent enthusiasm pursue a life of love and purity, we 
shall rapidly approach that blessed land where God shall have 
arranged the conditions, where all discords shall have died out, 
where nothing that defiles shall enter, and where the noble, the 
good, and the true, that belong to each other secretly on earth, 
shall belong to each other openly, and shall be separated no 
more forever. 

Do you love each other ? May God not only make your lov- 



64 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

ing more perfect than it now is, but raise it to the higher spheres 
of your mind. Do you walk together in truth inwardly ? Look 
to this, father and mother. See well to your own connection 
and union, husband and wife. Take heed, brothers and sisters. 
Take care, friend and friend, or lover and lover. There may be 
a gulf between you, and you not know it. Look to God for 
that divine, that celestial welding, which shall make you gold- 
enly one. And may God grant that at last, with infinite rap- 
ture, with transcendent joys expressed, and joys inexpressible 
and full of glory, we may meet where dangers are ended, and 
safety with salvation is begun, and begun to be ended never. 

FEBRUARY 3: EVENING. 

The Lord is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works. — 
Psalm cxlv., 9. 

God's pity is not as some sweet cordial, poured in dainty 
drops from a golden phial. It is not like the musical water- 
drops of some slender rill, murmuring down the dark sides of 
Mount Sinai. It is wide as the whole scope of heaven. It is 
abundant as all the air. If one had art to gather up all the 
golden sunlight that to-day falls wide over all this continent, 
falling through every silent hour ; and all that is dispersed over 
the whole ocean, flashing from every wave ; and all that is 
poured refulgent over the northern wastes of ice, and along the 
whole continent of Europe, and the vast outlying Asia and tor- 
rid Africa — if one could in anywise gather up this immense 
and incalculable outflow and treasure that falls down through 
the bi-ight hours, and runs in liquid ether about the mountains, 
and fills all the plains, and sends innumerable rays through 
every secret place, pouring over and filling every flower, shin- 
ing down the sides of every blade of grass, resting in glorious 
humility upon the humblest things — on sticks, and stones, and 
pebbles — on the spider's web, the sparrow's nest, the threshold 
of the young foxes' hole, where they play and warm themselves 
— that rests on the prisoner's window, that strikes radiant 
beams through the slave's tear, that puts gold upon the wid- 
ow's weeds, that plates and roofs the city with burnished gold, 
and goes on in its wild abundance up and down the earth, shin- 



FEBRUARY. 



65 



ing every where and always, since the day of primal creation, 
without faltering, without stint, without waste or diminution ; 
as full, as fresh, as overflowing to-day as if it were the very first 
day of its outlay — if one might gather up this boundless, end- 
less, infinite treasure, to measure it, then might he tell the 
height, and depth, and unending glory of the pity of God ! 
The light, and the sun, its source, are God's own figures of the 
immensity and copiousness of his mercy and compassion. 



FEBRUARY 4 : MORNING. 

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. — Prov. 
iii., 6. 

God reveals his will by his providence, and through his ad- 
ministration of events. But there is no such thing as inter- 
preting the will of God unless we have in us the spirit of chil- 
dren. What is the spirit of children ? Love — confidence. If 
a man comes to the interpretation of adverse or of fortunate 
events in the spirit of pride, or vanity, or selfishness, he will 
never know their meaning. God locks up his best blessings, 
but gives to every man a key wherewith to open the lock. 
Love is that key. Pride could not open the door; vanity 
could not open it. But if a man has the spirit of filial love ; 
if he says, "My Father knows me, and knows all my circum- 
stances; I love him, and his will is my will;" and if, when 
events come, he will look at them with a child-like, loving 
spirit, to him will be given to intei'pret the revelation of God's 
will in events. Love is better than philosophy. The intui- 
tions of love are the best guides that are offered to us in this 
life. If you would know how to read your Father's manuscript, 
written every day in the letters of events, you must have the 
spirit of filial love. 

FEBRUARY 4: EVENING. 
Ye are God's husbandry. — 1 Cor. iii., 9. 
Nations and races, spreading abroad through six thousand 
years, and flowing on endlessly, so that no prophet's eye can 
E 



06 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

discern the end to come ; all the broad earth, with its multi- 
plied populations — these are God's husbandry. God is the 
Great Cultivator. He looks out over his vast estate — the 
world — as a man looks over his smaller estate. All the agen- 
cies of nature are for God. For him the nations are simple in- 
struments of culture. Revolutions, famines, disasters, prosper- 
ities — all things that check or push forward the growth of men 
— are so many implements in his hand by which he tills this 
great farm of the earth. 

The end of the world is the harvest. Sinners are the chaff 
and the weeds ; the righteous are the good seed and the fruit 
— the one to be swept away, and the other to be garnered up. 
At last there shall come the winter, when all things shall cease 
and rest; and the glory of summer shall be in heaven, where 
all which is vital, and which carries its life, like a seed, in itself, 
shall be gathered. When this has taken place, and the with- 
ered leaves, and the decaying stalk, and all things else which 
have come to nothing, have fallen to the ground and perished, 
then shall be the end. 

" Ye are God's husbandry." For you he thinks. For you 
he tills. He is breaking in your disposition. He is preparing 
the soil of your hearts. He is cultivating you now by ways 
that make you cry out with pain — for all plowing and harrow- 
ing is painful. The seed long sown may not have yet shown 
its nature. No affliction for the present is joyous, but rather 
grievous ; but afterward it bringeth forth the peaceable fruits 
of righteousness. "Ye are God's husbandry." Rejoice in it. 
Let your bosom lie open to his influence as the soil lies open 
to the sun. Let God do as seemeth him good ; and by-and-by, 
with all your faculties, with every feeling of your nature, you 
shall, in the great harvest, bless God. 

So to God I leave it all ; 
Whatsoe'er may here befall, 
' Joy or trial, life or death, 
I receive it all in faith, 
And this anxious heart of mine 
Learns to trust its Guide Divine, 
Since it well hath understood 
All things work the Christian good. 



FEBBUAMY. gf 



FEBRUARY 5 : MORNING. 

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and 
lusts.— Gal. v., 24. 

Every man will find his cross in himself, and in the relation 
of his own mind to the peculiar circumstances in which he is 
placed. Your own passions will furnish you crosses enough. 
A great many persons, hearing much about taking up the cross 
and following Christ, ask themselves, "What is my cross ?" In 
that rebellious tongue, child, which answers back when the 
parent commands — there is your cross. In that temper, child, 
which rises up between you and your companions — there is 
your cross. In that greedy selfishness, my boy — there is your 
cross. In that lust, that fiery passion, my young friend — there 
is your cross. In that hungry avarice, man of business, that is 
making you a miser — there is your cross. In that consuming 
thirst for glory, in that indomitable ambition, in that inordinate 
self-seeking, public man — there is your cross. Every man's 
cross is the subjugation of that nature which God has put into 
him. Your cross lies in bringing your thoughts, and feelings, 
and acts into conformity with a Christian life. 

Let a man take his conscience, and go forth with an enlight- 
ened conception of what is right, and true, and manly, and spir- 
itual, and pure, and say, " I will crucify on this faculty every 
thing that opposes itself, to the will of God," and he will carry 
a Calvary with him every day. 

FEBRUARY 5: EVENING. 

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will cf God, ya 
might receive the promise. — Heb. x., 3G. 

Do not be discouraged because you are not perfect. It does 
not follow that you are not going on to know the Lord. If 
you are perfect, oh, tell me how to become so. Once in a while 
I come into the experience of a bright and sweet conception of 
the divine nature ; and if I were not called to come down from 
the top of the mountain, I could see my Christ in transfigura- 
tion, and there be a constant possessor of pure Christian affec- 



68 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

tions. But how to take the hurly-burly of life, and never lose 
my undying, unshrinking love to God — how to take the con- 
flict of worldly affairs, and never vary in my steadfast and dis- 
interested love toward my fellow-men, I can not find out. If 
any man has found that out, I thank God for him — only I would 
that he should tell us the secret of it, that we might know it 
too. But if you are discouraged because all your praying, and 
trying, and striving has availed but very little, I say to you, 
" Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great 
recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, 
after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the prom- 
ise." You are nearer than when you believed to this state, and 



FEBRUARY 6: MORNING. 

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom ; and 
the grace of God was upon him. — Luke ii., 40. 

Even Christ was made perfect through sufferings, in order 
that he might be the Captain of our salvation. He went 
through the same gradations in his development which we are 
obliged to go through in our development, in obedience to that 
law of growth to which every one in mortal flesh is subject. 
He went through the same experiences which all men are 
obliged to go through to be followers of him. And so it was 
with the apostles, whose lives stand out like fruits upon the 
bough, redolent, and full of tempting beauty. Paul was not 
heard from till half a score of years after the other apostles 
were known ; and if you look at those things in his writings 
which stand out in such exquisite condensation, you will find 
that twenty verses are crystallized into one verse. And as re- 
gards those graces which are enjoined upon us as if they were 
such easy things to attain — why, there is a lifetime put into a 
single word. Now when we read the Bible, or when we read 
biographies, or when we look at living men, we should remem- 
ber that we are not to compare our experiences with the expe- 
riences of great men. We should remember that we are yet 
children; that we*are at school; and that we must grow, if 



FEBRUARY. gg 

we would attain those virtues which we admire in others. And 
our motto should be, " Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of 
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 



FEBRUARY 6 : EVENING. 

No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. — Hebrews 
xii., 11. 

Some seem to think that a man, to be a Christian, ought to 
be able not to suffer when suffering comes ; but the ache of 
suffering is a part of its medicine. You might as well say that 
manliness requires that a man should drink bitter draughts, 
and call them sweet, as to say that Christianity requires that a 
man should bear suffering, and say that it is not suffering. It 
requires no such thing. It does not even require that we should 
illumine suffering so that for the present it shall seem joyous. 
The Christian, when his companion is taken from him, is not 
required to say, " I am so wonderfully strengthened that I have 
no suffering." A mother is not called upon, when she has given 
up her child to God, to say, " I suffer none." You are to suffer. 
~No afflictions for the present are joyous, but grievous ; never- 
theless, afterward they yield the peaceable fruit of righteous- 
ness unto them that are exercised thereby. 

Dear Savior, full of grief I find no rest ; 
Let me but weep my tears upon thy breast. 

Though deeper still my sorrow, 
Still I shall be bless'd 

If thou dost comfort me. 



. FEBRUARY 7 : MORNING. 

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 
even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by 
grace ye are saved).— Ephes. ii., 4, 5. 

No man can, unaided, go through the battle of life, fight his 
way to heaven's gate, and there present his ticket to Christ, 
saying, " I have done my part — I have won the victory ; it is 
your part to reward me." If Christ is not to help a man till 
after he has gone through this earthly struggle, one may as 
well give it up, for he can not hope to get through it without 



70 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

help. If there is not a Savior that will take me by the hand 
and co-operate with me before I get through life, then there is 
no Savior at all. If Christ is a spectator in this conflict, and 
not a sympathizing actor with me, and by my side, then he is 
not a Savior in my case. 

I do not thank a doctor that comes to me to congratulate 
me after I get well. I want a doctor that will help me to get 
well when I fall sick. The real Christ of the New Testament 
is a being whose nature — not whose office — whose nature leads 
him to have compassion on the weak, the sinful, and the help- 
less. He offers to help all men, however sinful ; not when they 
have got rid of sin, but when they are in it, that they may get 
rid of it. It is Christ's work in the soul, to help you against 
sin, and out of sin. He takes the soul, in all its wickedness, 
that by the brooding of his heart he may heal it. 



FEBRUARY 7 : EVENING. 

Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of 
reward. — Hebrews x., 35. 

There are many who say, " If I should ever be a Christian, I 
tell you I shall not be such a Christian as some that I see." 
Yes, that is the way you feel now. A hundred men have been 
in just the same delusion that you are in. You have the im- 
pression that, when you begin to live a Christian life, you will 
show men and angels what it is to have zeal and faith ; but you 
will be just like any other poor sinner that is converted by 
God's grace and brought into his kingdom. You will find that 
"it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth." You 
will find that, though you set your will against habits, habits 
will beset you. Your pride, your selfishness, your vanity, your 
avarice, your worldly-mindedness — all these, twisted and gnarl- 
ed in the old soil where they have grown, you will find it diffi- 
cult to bring into subjection to the laws of Christ; and, crest- 
fallen, you will come to your pastor and say, "I always thought 
that, if ever I became a Christian, I should live so as to be a 
pattern to every body ; but I have tried it six months, and 
have not succeeded very well ; and I am sorry I joined the 
Church, for I do not think I am a Christian." Oh, do not cast 



FEBRUARY. 



71 



away your confidence. You are not a saint, very likely ; but 
you may be a Christian, nevertheless. Why, you did not know 
any thing about a Christian life. You did not know what it 
was to have a depraved heart, to be reconstructed, and to be 
fashioned by the power of God's grace acting through your 
own judgment and will. When a man takes hold of himself 
to refashion himself in righteousness, he ivill find that he can 
not do it in a day, in a month, or in a year, and that he needs 
patience. And when, at the end, he dies, he will still say, " My 
work is but just begun." 



FEBRUARY 8 : MORNING. 

The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, hecause ye were 
more in number than any other people ; for ye were the fewest of all people. 
But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he 
had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty 
hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bcndmen, from the hand of Pha- 
raoh, king of Egypt. — Deut. vii., 7, 8. 

God's love does not depend upon our character, but upon his 
own. I do not mean to affirm that it makes no difference 
Avhether a man has a good or a bad character. I do not mean 
to affirm that there do not spring up between the Divine na- 
ture and ourselves, by reason of our relations to that nature, 
certain deeper and more wonderful affections. But I do mean 
to affirm this — that there is a great overshadowing love of God 
to us, that stands, not on account of our character, but on ac- 
count of his. God's love for us is not affirmed to exist because 
God perceived a spark kindled in us gradually flaming forth, 
and reaching up toward him. It is not affirmed to exist be- 
cause our hearts, feebly beating, seemed to knock at the door 
of his heart, rousing, by their very spent and weak sounds, the 
compassion of the hospitable Divinity. 

Do the roots, and grass, and early flowers break forth from 
winter, and send messengers for the sun to come back ? or does 
the sun, come from its far voyaging, long to overhang the sleep- 
ing-places of flowers until they feel his presence, and, drawn by 
his warm hands, wake and come forth into a warmth and a 
light that waited above them while they were dead, and that 



>j2 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

would have bathed them yet, and all summer long, though they 
had still lain torpid ? 

FEBRUARY 8: EVENING. 

All Scripture * * * is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
furnished unto all good works.— 2 Tim. iii., 16, 17. 

The Bible is God's chart for you to steer by, to keep you 
from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor 
is, and how to reach it without running on rocks or bars. 

If you have been reading it to gratify curiosity ; or to see if 
you could not catch a Universalist ; or to find a knife with 
which to cut up a Unitarian ; or for the purpose of setting up 
or taking down a bishop; or to establish or overthrow any 
sect — if you have been reading it so, then stop. It is God's 
medicine-book. You are sick. You are mortally struck through 
with disease. There is no human remedy for your trouble. But 
here is God's medicine-book. If you read it for life, for growth 
in righteousness, then blessed is your reading ; but if you read 
it for disputation and dialectical ingenuities, it is no more to 
you than Bacon's " Novum Organum" would be. 

It is the book of life — of everlasting life ; so take heed how 
you read it. You can not live without it. You die forever 
unless you have it to teach you what are your relations to God 
and eternity. May God guide you away from all cunning ap- 
pearances of truth set to deceive men, and make you love the 
real truth ! Above all other things, may God make you hon- 
est in interpreting it, and applying it to your daily life and 
disposition ! 

Who has this Book, and reads it not, 

Doth God himself despise ; 
Who reads, but understandeth not, 

His soul in darkness lies. 
Who understands, but savors not, 

He finds no rest in trouble ; 
Who savors, but obeyeth not, 

He hath his judgment double. 
Who reads this Book — who understands — 

Doth savor and obey, 
His soul shall stand at God's right hand 

In the great judgment day. 



FEBRUABY. ^3 



FEBRUARY %: MORNING. 
And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue ; and to vir- 
tue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; 
and to patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to broth- 
erly kindness, charity. — 2 Peter i., 5-7. 

True religion carries health and strength into the soul. It 
regulates all things ; it subordinates all things to their just po- 
sitions; it withdraws from men no faculty; it ties up no power; 
it extinguishes no instinct ; it imprisons no part of the mind ; 
it directs and regulates. Religion is only another word for 
the right use of a man's whole self, instead of a wrong use of 
himself. It puts men into connection with God ; it brings them 
into harmonious relations to their fellow-men; it gives them 
direction for the achievement of duty ; it opens to them the 
coming world, and inspires them with ardent desires for it ; it 
makes them love whatever is good, and abhor whatever is bad; 
it inspires reverence, obedience, and love toward God and to- 
ward our superiors among men ; it inculcates justice, mercy, 
and benevolence toward our fellow-men; it endues us with 
courage, with patience, with contentment ; it commands indus- 
try, frugality, and hospitality; it enjoins honesty, truthfulness, 
uprightness, simplicity, and integrity. And that men, in their 
ignorance and weakness, may feel the importance of virtue and 
of the truest piety, Christ reveals the immortality of man's na- 
ture, the glory of the heavenly state, the sympathy of God with 
the struggles of human life, and, above all, sets before men, in 
a perfect pattern, the example of the life of Christ, who was 
tempted in all points like as we are in this earthly strife, and 
yet without sin, teaching us both by precept and by his victo- 
rious career. 

FEBRUARY 9: EVENING. 
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto 
children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when 
thou art rebuked of him. — Heb. xii., 5. 

What beautiful figures the Bible employs ! On a summer 
day, in the afternoon, as the sun begins to roll toward the west, 
and shed that charming after-light which it is so delightful to 



74 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

behold, some parent calls bis children into the room, and tells 
them his story. They with eager expectation gather about 
him, and he, full of gentleness, recounts to them his OAvn his- 
tory, and tells them what they may expect under such and such 
circumstances. What a beautiful scene that is ! Poets love 
it, sentimentalists love it ; every one that has a parental feeling 
admires it. And that exquisite passage of human experience 
God catches, and idealizes, and makes the symbol of a true con- 
ception of him, especially in our troubles. " Ye have forgotten 
-the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My 
son" — when any body is in trouble, God says to him by that 
trouble, My son — " My son, despise not thou the chastening of 
the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him ; for whom 
the Lord loveth he chisteneth, and scourgeth every son whom 
he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you 
as with sons." 

There is the word of the Lord. When your trouble is real 
and painful, and you carry it to God, and ask for its removal, 
if it abides with you, you are apt to think, " It must be that 
God is punishing me for my sins, and that he is hiding his face 
from me." " No," says the voice of God; " so far from it, I am 
dealing with you tenderly; I am your parent; I love you, and 
the trouble that I permit to remain with you is one of the evi- 
dences of the affection which I cherish toward you." And if 
you endure it, he deals with you as with sons. 



FEBRUARY 10: MORNING. 

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and whatso- 
ever thou shalt hind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. — Matt, xvi., 19. 

Every one that has the mind and will of Christ, and abides 
in his Spirit, stands in the relation to those below him of the 
holder of the keys. Woe be to him that in time of famine has 
bread, and lets men starve because he will not part with it ! 
Woe be to him that in time of plague has medicine, and lets 
men die untended ! Double woe be to him that has been en- 
lightened of God, and lets men perish because he will not take, 



FEBRUARY. 7 5 

by the authority of God, the light that he has received and car- 
ry it to them. Are there not within the touch of the hem of 
your garment ; are there not in your business places ; are there 
not in your daily travels; are there not in the thoroughfares 
of the city, scores and hundreds into whose darkened minds 
the light of God's truth never pierced, to whom you never came 
with a lantern? Here you stand unconcerned — you whose 
soul is luminous, you that by the power of the Holy Ghost have 
been ordained to be a teacher, a leader, and a dispenser of spir- 
itual things — and men are wasting and dying in darkness all 
round about you ! God has given you the keys, and he will 
hold you to a responsibility for the right use of them. 



FEBRUARY 10: EVENING. 

I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. — Jeremi- 
ah xv., 20. 

Eveey heart knows its own bitterness. There is often a del- 
icacy in grief. Though sometimes it is clamorous and vocal, 
oftener it is silent. But there is a process quietly going on, 
though it may not be apparent, by which those who seem to 
be separated in the present shall in the future be gathered to- 
gether by sorrow. Those that weep apart on earth shall joy 
together in heaven. Those who in their sorrows are cast out 
from the sympathies of their fellow-men shall be gathered into 
the fellowship and sympathy of the heavenly host. This sep- 
aration and disintegration are only apparent. Really, it is a 
preparation for fellowship in the world to come. 

Your salvation is nearer than when you believed. You are 

not far from that host that waits for you. It can not be long 

before your sorrows shall end and your eternal joy shall begin. 

Then be patient. Is the storm fierce ? Yet it is almost past, 

and the time of the singing of birds is at hand. 

Cometh sunshine after rain, 
After morning joy again ; 
After heavy, bitter grief, 
Dawneth surely sweet relief; 
Who in God his hope hath placed 
Shall not life in pain outwaste, 
Fullest joy he yet shall taste. 



76 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



FEBRUARY 11 : MORNING. 
But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.— Matthew 
xix.,30. 

There are many of the plants of our northern summer which 
come up quickly, which rush to their flowering periods, and do 
exceedingly well; but they are coarse and rank. And there 
are many seeds that I plant by the side of them every spring 
which in the first summer only grow a few leaves high. There 
is not sun enough in our hemisphere, nor heat enough in the 
bosom of my soil, to make them do what it is in them to do. 
But if I take them and put them in some sheltered hot-house, 
and give them the continuous growth of autumn and winter, 
and then again, when June begins to burn in the next summer, 
put them out once more, they gather strength by this second 
planting, and lift up their arms, and spread out the abundance 
of their blossoms, and are the pride and glory of the spring. 
The plants that grew quickest the year before are now called 
weeds by their side. 1 doubt not that there is many a man 
who rushes up to a rank growth in the soil of this world, and 
of whom men, seeing him, say, " That is a great man ;" but 
there are many starveling, poor, feeble, and effectless creatures 
in this world who will be carried safely on and up, and rooted 
in a better clime ; and then, lifting up their whole nature, they 
will come out into that glorious summer of fervent love in 
heaven, where they will be more majestic, more transcendently 
beautiful in blossoms, and more exquisitely sweet in fruit, than 
those who so far surpass them here. 

Do not despise men that are less than you are. Do not un- 
dervalue men because they are not of much account in this 
world. A man may not be able to make money, and yet he 
may be rich. A man may not have the power to generate 
thoughts here, but by-and-by he will. Birds do not sing the 
moment they are out of their shell. They must have a season 
in which to learn to sing. And men do not unfold their true 
natures, or sing their best songs, many of them, in this world. 
There is another world beyond ; and there is no man that has 
appearances so much against him in this world that you can 



FEBRUARY. ^ 

afford to despise him, to feel contempt for him, or to regard 
him as worthless. That term worthless, applied to unaccom- 
plishing weakness in this world, is pagan. 



FEBRUARY 11 : EVENING. 
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous 
into life eternal.— Matt, xxv., 46. 

Sometimes, in dark caves, men have gone to the edge of un- 
speaking precipices, and, wondering what was the depth, have 
cast down fragments of rock, and listened for the report of 
their fall, that they might judge how deep that blackness was; 
and listening! — still listening! — no sound returns! no sullen 
plash, no clinking stroke as of rock against rock — nothing hut 
silence, utter silence ! And so I stand upon the precipice of 
life. I sound the depths of the other world with curious in- 
quiries. But from it comes no echo, and no answer to my 
questions. No analogies can grapple and bring up from the 
depths of the darkness of the lost world the probable truths. 
No philosophy has line and plummet long enough to sound the 
depths. There remains for us only the few authoritative and 
solemn words of God. These declare that the bliss of the right- 
eous is everlasting ; and with equal directness and simplicity 
they declare that the doom of the wicked is everlasting. 

The incorrigibly wicked, the deliberately impenitent, have 
nothing^ to hope in the future, if they set aside the light and 
the glory that shines in the face of Jesus Christ. And there- 
fore it is that I make haste, with an inconceivable ardor, to per- 
suade you to be reconciled to your God. I hold up before you 
that God who loves the sinners and abhors sin; who loves good- 
ness with infinite fervor, and breathes it upon those who put 
their trust in him ; who makes all the elements his ministering 
servants ; who sends years, and weeks, and days, and hours, all 
radiant with benefaction, and, if we would but hear their voice, 
all pleading the goodness of God as an argument of repentance 
and of obedience. 

But remember that it is this God who declares that he will 
at last by no means clear the guilty. 



78 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



FEBRUARY 12 : MORNING. 

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit Ehall return 
unto God who gave it. — Eccles. xii., 7. 

I never saw a man that did not believe in the immortality 
of love when following the body of a loved one to the grave. I 
have seen men under other circumstances that did not believe 
in it ; but I never saw a man that, when he stood looking upon 
the form of one that he really loved stretched out for burial, 
did not revolt from saying, " It has all come to that — the hours 
of sweet companionship; the wondrous interlacings of tropical 
souls; the joys, the hopes, the trusts, the unutterable yearn- 
ings, there they all lie." No man can stand and look in a cof- 
fin, upon the body of a fellow-creature, and remember the flam- 
ing intelligence, the blossoming love, the whole range of divine 
faculties that animated that cold clay, and say, " These have all 
collapsed and gone." No person can witness the last sad cere- 
monials which are performed over the remains of a human be- 
ing — the sealing down of the unopenable lid ; the following of 
the rumbling procession to the place of burial ; the letting 
down of the dust into dust ; the falling of the earth upon the 
hollow coffin, and the placing of the green sod over the grave 
— no person can witness these things, and then turn away and 
say, " I have buried my wife ; I have buried my child ; I have 
buried my sister, my brother, my love." 

God forbid that we should bury any thing. There is no 
earth that can touch my companion. There is no earth that 
can touch my child. I would fight my little breath and strength 
away before I would permit any clod to touch them. The jew- 
el is not in the ground. The jewel has dropped out of the cask- 
et, and I have buried the casket, not the jewel. 



FEBR VARY 12: E VENINQ. 
Thy will be done.— Matt, vi., 10. 

The true God, the Christian's God, the God that faith takes 
hold of, fills the heaven, fills the earth, fills time, fills provi- 
dence, fills nature, fills the Christian's soul, and is with him by 



FEBRUARY. 



79 



day and by night, in his rising up and his sitting down ; and 
he can say, " Whom have I in heaven but thee ? There is none 
upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart 
fail ; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for- 
ever." Have you any such God ? Can you trust him ? Can 
you worship him ? Can you look in the face of Jesus Christ 
to-day, and say, " Thy will be done ?" At that enchantment 
burdens roll off, cares fly away, darkness lifts, the earth is trans- 
formed, events have a new significance, and those experiences 
that have seemed before to us to be so many persecutions, now 
begin to letter themselves and form sentences ; and every let- 
ter and every sentence begins to be a literature interpreting 
the goodness, the mercy, and the glory of God to us. 

I worship thee, sweet will of God, 

And all thy ways adore ; 
And every day I live, I seem 

To love thee more and more. 

I have no cares, oh blessed will ! 

For all my cares are thine ; 
I live in triumph, Lord, for thou 

Hast made thy triumphs mine. 

And when it seems no chance or change 

From grief can set me free, 
Hope finds its strength in helplessness, 

And, trusting, waits on thee. 



FEBRUARY 13: MORNING. 

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble ; and he knoweth them 
that trust in him. — Nahum i., 7. 

Is not Christ kinder than the heavens ? and yet do they not 
open their bosom, and give us water to drink, and shed down 
upon us the light of the sun by day, and the light of stars by 
night ? Is not Christ better than the earth ? and yet out of its 
bosom does it not yield us all things which we need for the 
nourishment of the body ? Is not God better than times and 
seasons, that move ignorantly in vast circuits ? and yet do not 
times and seasons clothe us, and nourish us, and minister unto 
us ? Is the great sentient One — the ever-living, the vast and 
ocean-hearted God — the eternal Jehovah — is he less pitiful than 
the heavens, the sun, the stars, the earth, or the seasons ? 



80 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Oh! there is nothing but God in the universe. All these 
other things are but his feeble ministers and recipients, in the 
heavens and on the earth. In the growing leaf, in the blossom, 
in all fruits, in the streams, in the things that come to us on 
every side from the vast treasure-houses of Nature, we have 
but so many means by which God speaks to us. His voice 
comes to us, night and day, saying to us, " Ye are mine, and I 
am yours. My everlasting strength is underneath you. Trust 
me and love me, and I will bear you up, and you shall be 
saved." 



FEBRUARY 13: EVENING. 

It is enough ; now, Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my 
fathers.— 1 Kings xix., 4. 

There are times, I suppose, in which the most zealous would, 
if it were God's will, be glad to die — to retire from the battle 
of life — because they think it w r ill make no difference whether 
they live or die. They have such a consciousness of imperfec- 
tion, of inferiority, of unfitness in themselves, that they feel that 
it could scarcely be worse, and that it might be much better, 
if they were out of the world, and their places were filled by 
others. 

What is a drop of water of itself? What can be more harm- 
less? What is weaker? What is less potent for any effect? 
It is mist, invisible. It rises through the imperceptible paths 
of the air, and hangs unseen in the heavens, till the cold strikes 
it, and it congeals into clouds, and falls in the form of rain, per- 
haps on the mountain's top, and is sucked up by the greedy 
earth. Still sinking through the earth, it reaches the line of 
the rocks, from whose sides it oozes out and trickles down, 
when, finding other drops as weak as itself, they unite their 
forces ; and the sum of the weakness of all these drops goes to 
make the rill, which flows on, making music as it flows, until it 
meets counter streams. These, combined, form the river ; the 
river forms the estuary ; and the estuary the ocean itself. And 
now, when God has marshaled the sum of the weakness of myr- 
iad drops together, they lift the mightiest ship as if it were but 
a feather, and play with the winds as if they were mere instru- 



FEBRUARY. 81 

ments of sport. And yet that very drop, which a man could 
bear upon the end of his finger, is there, and has its part and 
lot in the might of the whole vast, unbounded sea. 

We in our singleness, in our individuality, in our own selves, 
are weaker than a drop of water, and more unstable ; but as 
gathered together in the great ocean of life, as kept together 
by the mighty currents which God's providences make, we at- 
tain, working together with him, under the inspiration of his 
Spirit, to a might that makes life not ignoble, but sublime. 



FEBRUARY 14: MORNING. 
Who art thou, Lord 1—Acts ix., 5. 

It is a wholesome question for every man to put to himself, 
not What is Jesus Christ ? but What is my Christ ? We are 
conscious that we have different Christs — that is, that Christ 
appears differently to different ones. We are familiar with 
yearning after each other's experiences. "Oh !" says one, "that 
I could have such a joyous view as such a Christian has ! Oh ! 
that I had such a comfort in my hope as I perceive in another !" 
which, being interpreted, amounts to this : that different people 
have very different Christs. As you bring your own life to 
the fashioning of your Christ, in some respects he is meagre. 
He is yet " a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" to 
some of you. He is to many of you only a conscience, s worded 
and armed. To still more of you he is but a problem, an argu- 
ment, an abstract statement. To many of you God is a power 
— and a physical power at that — engineering in the heavens; 
while to many others he is a power domineering on the earth. 
So different men frame their Gods — their Christ-Gods — differ- 
ently. But oh ! there is no framing, and no following up, that 
is so unworthy of a man as that which is lean, and meagre, 
and poor — as that in which pity is less even than in man, or as 
that in which the commercial element is stronger than in man. 
Where I see God conditioned, and his mercies limited, and put 
upon one and another ground, it being said, " If you do so and 
so, God will do so and so : our God is thus and so ;" when I see 
men piece and patch their notion of God, and circumscribe the 
F 



82 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

effluence and infinite spontaneity of divine love, and the over- 
flowing divinity of Jesus — when I see these things, it seems to 
me that men hold up here a rush-light, there a wax torch, there 
a candle, and yonder a smoking pine knot, and call them Gods, 
each worshiping his own light, while the sun itself, out of doors, 
blazes all through the hemisphere, and should rebuke the mean- 
ness and poverty of the conception which men have of light. 



FEBRUARY 14: EVENING. 

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.— 
27e&.vi.,19. 

Ax anchor is not for fair weather. It is for refuge in time 
of extremity. 

Our life requires many ways of using God. We are to use 
him as bread in the familiarity of our every-day life. "We are 
to use him as we use water, for he is the bread and water of 
life. We are to use him as we do our garments, for we are 
commanded to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many 
purposes -which God serves, and which in various passages he 
opens and sets before us in his Word. In this particular passage 
there is a use of God for extremities, just as an anchor is used 
for extremities. It lies on the bows of the ship, quite useless 
through days, and Aveeks, and months it may be. It is only 
relied upon when the winter wind sings in the air with threat 
of danger, and when there is darkness on the sea in the night. 
There are also extremities of life when the soul can hold by 
nothing else but some such hope as this in God. Times when, 
storm-tossed, it can only say, " I anchor upon God." 

Though waves and storms go o'er my head, 

Though strength, and health, and friends be gone ; 

Though joys be withered all, and dead, 
And every comfort be withdrawn — 

On this my steadfast soul relies, 

Jesus, thy mercy never dies. 

Fixed on this ground will I remain,- 

Though my heart fail and flesh decay ; 
This anchor shall my soul sustain 

When earth's foundations melt away ; 
Mercy's full power I then shall prove, 
Loved with an everlasting love. 



FEBRUARY. g3 



FEBRUARY 15: MORNING. 

The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth 
up : what lack I yet ? — Matt, xix., 20. 

Because you are good-natured, because you are gentle, be- 
cause all the offices of your mind are performed with mildness, 
because you have the testimony in your heart that you wish 
well to every thing, it does not follow either that you are a 
Christian, or that you are near becoming one. On the contrary, 
the presumptions are that a mere well-wisher is far from true 
religion, far from the kingdom of God, far from health, and far 
from safety. For religion is a system of the most positive char- 
acter. It is a system which can not be embraced, a life which 
can not be prosecuted without great plenary, generic volitions, 
and without an unintermitted series of specific choices or wills. 

The first demand which is made of every man is, " My son, 
give me thine heart." Renounce the life of self-indulgence and 
of selfishness. Turn away from a conception of life which 
makes it right for you to use all the powers of your body, and 
all the powers of your soul, for the production of effects for 
your own pleasure, seeking your own good either in your per- 
son, or distributively in your family, or more distributively in 
your neighborhood ; forsake that life of either direct or indi- 
rect selfishness, and be born again into a new life in which the 
prime and chiefest feeling is love, and the allegiance which love 
bears. " Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, 
and thy neighbor as thyself." 



FEBRUARY 15 : EVENING. 

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered 
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love 
him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. — 1 Cor. ii., 9, 10. 

The life of every Christian on earth hath much in it that is 
mysterious, for it is aiming at an awful grandeur which has 
never yet been unveiled. God carries in his bosom the full 
ideal. We know it not. We go moaning after music. We 



84 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

rudely grope for beauty. We are sick men leaning on a staff, 
and walking slowly for convalescence. We do not know the 
things toward which we are tending; but God knows them. 
There are few that suppose their moanings or yearnings mean 
any thing ; but God interprets them. The apostle says, " The 
Spirit helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should 
pray for as we ought ; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession 
for us with groanings which can not be uttered." 

We see, then, the meaning of those strange longings and as- 
pirations which so many have. They are the foreworkings in 
us of that which is to appear in the heavenly estate. They are 
not a mere vagrant restlessness. They are the yearning of the 
soul for itself. They are the home-sickness of the heart for its 
future home. They are the attempt of the child to say " Fa- 
ther." We see, too, the meaning of those glimpses and visions 
which so many have. John says, " It cloth not yet appear what 
we shall be." We are the sons of God, we know ; but what 
that means we do not know. 



FEBRUARY 16 : MORNING. 
For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I 
serve, saying, Fear not, Paul ; thou must be brought before Caesar ; and lo, God 
hath given thee all them that sail with thee.— A cts xxvii., 23, 24. 

We are all of us, like Paul, voyagers. Sometimes the voy- 
age is calm and prosperous ; sometimes it is stormy and disas- 
trous. Every sort of fate attends the various navigation of all 
that spread their sails upon this voyage of life. 

The circle to which a man is united by his heart's affections 
may be said to be the ship in which he sails. Those that are 
in the ship are tossed with us, and we are tossed with them. 
The same sea is under us all. The wind that wrecks them 
strands us. We can not untie the cords that are plied around 
us. And as we are all voyaging together on the sea of life, so 
we are in little groups enshipped together ; and the promise is 
the same to all that can stand in Christian faith by God's an- 
gel with love and desire. He will not say to them that pros- 
perity shall be theirs, but he will say to them, as he did to Paul, 
" Lo, God hath given thee all that sail with thee." Do you ask 



FEBRUARY. 



85 



promise to you, could you not say to him to-day, " Lord, it 
enough. I accept it as the satisfaction of my life. Give me all 
that sail with me in my ship, that I may bring them, after the 
voyage is over, to thee ?" Will not that suffice ? 

And ye that are teaching in schools, during the week or upon 
the Sabbath day, is it ever a thought with you how to bring 
those that sail with you, all of them, safely through ? God has 
given them to you. You are to them as a parent, and it is 
yours to guide them in the way in which they should go. Are 
there hours in which you think you hear the angel of God say- 
ing to you, " Though thou must stand before Caesar, yet, lo, I 
have given thee all that sail with thee ?" Blessed promise ! 
sweet assurance ! holy hope ! There is nothing better that man 
could imagine in all the gifts and experiences of life. 



FEBBTJARY 16 : EVENING. 

In the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them 
from heaven. — Neh. ix., 27. 

During the summer, on Western rivers, as you are riding or 
even wading across the ford, you may see, lying a little below 
you, great flat-bottomed boats used for ferrying. During the 
summer, while waters are low, and men can cross without help 
and without danger, these craft lie moored to the shore, with 
nothing to do. But when heavy rains have swollen the river, 
and the ford is drowned out so that no man may dare to ven- 
ture it, then travelers are glad to see the clumsy boat swung 
round, and, by cords and poles, forced across the swift-running 
waters for the convenience of those who must pass over. 

All our emergencies are like streams. So long as we can 
cross them without help we use the ford. But when our af- 
fairs are beyond our own skill or strength, God sends round 
his promises, which had lain along the shore tied up and dis- 
used, to bear us over the black, swollen waters. And blessed 
is he who is willing and able to venture across real troubles 
upon God's stanch promises. 



86 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



FEBRUARY 17: MORNING. 

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set be- 
fore you life and death, blessing and cursing : therefore choose life, that both 
thou and thy seed may live. — Deut. xxx., 19. 

He that would enter into the kingdom of God must enter by- 
one of those throes that are like birth-throes. The soul cries 
out as the child in birth cries, and enters into the new life, not 
only as one feeble, as one just born, but in pain and tribulation. 

No man can begin a religious life except by putting forth 
such conscious volitions and purposes as reach to the very bot- 
tom of the soul. Every step farther in that Christian life is a 
step in which our hearts are to rise from lower stages and gra- 
dations to higher; for we are to follow Christ. No man can 
literally follow him as the apostles and primitive disciples did. 
We can only let our actions follow his actions, and from day to 
day be, according to the measure of our power, and in our spe- 
cial spheres,what he was in the greatness of his power, and ac- 
cording to the sphere and office which he performed on earth. 
But it is the daily life in which a man is obliged to put forth 
energy, consideration, and positiveness peculiarly. For there 
is not an hour in which you are not called to choose between 
selfishness and benevolence ; there is not an hour in which you 
are not called to choose between the higher and the lower; 
there is not an hour in which all the best notes of the soul do 
not sound, and in which all the heavenly influences do not ap- 
peal to the higher elements of the soul. 



FEBRUARY 17: EVENING. 

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which 
is above every name. — Phil, ii., 9. 

In respect to every one of those qualities which go to make 
names that are dear to the heart, the Lord Jesus Christ is in- 
finitely above' all others. All the love and authority which 
there is in father, even in the most eminent instances, and in 
ideal instances, is so dark, compared with that special element 
in the Lord Jesus Christ, that it could scarcely appear by its 



FEBBUABY. 



S7 



side. Christ is more in those very qualities which make a fa- 
ther dear to his children, or a neighbor noble to his neighbors, 
than any or all fathers or neighbors. He is infinite in those 
things. All those indescribable and tender graces which make 
mother the queenly name in all the earth, Christ has in such 
abundance and perfectness, that a mother's heart by the side 
of his would be like a taper at midday. All that which the 
child yearns for while a child, and remembers with home-sick- 
ness afterward, when grown up ; all those qualities that make 
men look back for their paradise to their childhood, and make 
them feel, too often, that life is a wilderness, and their early 
homes the place of love, and joy, and sweet fruition, are not so 
dominant in father and mother as they are in Jesus. He is 
more fatherly than fathers, and more motherly than mothers. 
He is more tender in love than any lover ever knew how to be. 
Language is exhausted in the Bible to signify the inflections 
of divine tenderness. No love-letter that ever was written, or 
could be written, could compare with what can be gathered 
out of the Old and New Testaments, describing the inflections 
of divine love toward men. There is no such literature known 
as that which shines and glows in the word of God, to express 
love in all its infinite inflections. 



FEBRUARY 18 : MORNING. 

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and 
troubled about many things.— Luke x.,41. 

More than half that we suffer through fear of troubles is 
that which we are made to suffer by magnifying them. You 
suffer ten times as much in thinking about having your tooth 
drawn as you do in having it drawn. The surgeon's knife does 
not give half as much pain as the patient suffers in thinking 
about having the operation performed. We take our troubles, 
and turn them over, and look at them ; we imagine what form 
they will assume; we make an inventory of them; we muster 
them, and call the roll, and put them in order, and march them 
first this way and then that ; we annoy ourselves with them as 
much as possible. Men are infernally ingenious in tormenting 



88 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

themselves with troubles which ninety-nine times in a hundred 
have no existence except in their imagination. 

That we should have a revelation of the life to come by the 
Lord Jesus Christ ; that by the power of the Holy Ghost the 
love of the Savior should be set home to our souls ; that we 
should be made to know that we are unspeakably dear to God ; 
that we should be brought to realize that our journey through 
this world is short, and that we are only pilgrims and strangers 
seeking another and a better home ; that a vision of the heav- 
enly glory should be vouchsafed to us — that all these things 
should be opened up to our minds, and that we, after all, should 
measure our troubles, not by their relation to the eternal realm, 
but simply by their effects upon our earthly estate — is that 
manly? is it apostolic? is it Christ-like? Is it not, rather, bas§ 
and ignoble ? Are we not to turn from all these low consider- 
ations of trouble, and take that higher and nobler view of it 
which has reference to our future existence ? 

We must learn of Christ how to bear trouble. We must 
bear it as he bore it, "who, for the joy that was set before him, 
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the 
right hand of the throne of God." 



FEBBUABY 18: EVENING. 

We are the children of God ; and if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and 
joint heirs with Christ. — Rom. viii., 16, 17. 

We are " heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," accord- 
ing to the declaration of the apostle. All that there is of 
beauty, and richness, and sweetness, and grandeur, and author- 
ity in Christ is not simply something to which we are permit- 
ted to look, but it is ours. We have the same right in it that 
a child has in the dignity and elevation of his father. If the 
father comes to honor, and is of universal repute, the child feels 
stronger, and richer, and happier. The father's name is the 
child's glory, as the child's prosperity is the father's joy. All 
that God has is mine. All that he is is mine. I am what I 
am by the grace of God. I do not stand in my own being. 
The sum of my richness is not what I have, but what I am to 
inherit. In the ineffable love of Christ, in the glory, and beauty, 



FEBRUARY. 



SO 



and grandeur of his nature, and in his elevation of character, I 
have a part and a lot. He is my Father, he is my Brother, he 
is my Friend, he is my Companion, and shall he forever and 
forever. He shall lead me by the hand here, and he shall lead 
me by the hand through the valley of the shadow of death. And 
I shall fear no evil. I shall meet the mysterious foes that peo- 
ple darkness and space, and say, "The Captain of my salvation 
is victorious over all adversaries." I shall not fear to face the 
life to come. I know in whom I have trusted ; and what I 
have committed to his charge he will keep, for he is a faithful 
Savior. I know that my sins rise up, hut he knows them better 
than I do. I know my inferiority ; but did ever bird sit on the 
nest that it might brood the egg into life, and then wait patient- 
ly for the callow bird to fly and sing, feeding it the while, that 
it .had not borrowed something to teach me what God is, who 
sits with infinite patience, brooding men till they are brought 
up out of imperfection into perfection, and are able to fly 
through the realms of power, and grace, and glory ? I am im- 
perfect enough, but not I, but Christ that dwelleth in me, gives 
hope. 



FEBRUARY 19 : MORNING. 
Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. — Matt, xxyiii., 20. 

How seldom do I find men who have a living Christ. They 
have a New Testament Christ, a doctrinal Chris't, a letter 
Christ, a sepulchre Christ, a Christ of sacrifice. Some people, 
when talking about Christ, never say Christ, but always say 
" cross." They are always talking about " the glories of the 
cross" and "the salvation of the cross." Some people seem to 
think that the cross is Christ. Many people talk about Christ 
with the idea of his being the Son of Man in his Father's glory, 
and their Christ is future. Some men have a historical Christ, 
and others have a prophetic Christ ; but very few have a Christ 
that is fulfilling to them the promise, " I will come unto you, 
and make my abode with you." Very few have a Christ that 
is with them at midnight and at noonday, at morning and at 
evening ; in temptation, in sin, in repentance ; that is never far 
off; that is a present help in time of trouble ; that is breathing 



90 



MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



the effulgence of the divine nature npon them, to rescue them, 
to cleanse them, to pardon them, and to carry them in the 
bosom of his providence, from strength to strength, until they 
shall stand in Zion before God. 



FEBRUARY 19: EVENING. 

I am the living bread which came down from heaven : if any man eat of this 
bread he shall live forever : and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which 
I will give for the life of the world. — John vi., 51. 

You have fed upon this undiminishing loaf, you have been 
supplied by it often and often, but as yet you have seen only 
the wagons that Joseph sent from Egypt to bring his father 
down, and the provisions for the way. You have not seen the 
royal palace, you have not seen the store-houses. There were 
yet to be many years of famine, and the son sent the father pro- 
vision for the way, but no more than that. But when he re- 
ceived him, he gave him the fattest land of the whole of well- 
watei-ed Egypt. You have had provisions sent you sufficient 
for the way, but your God dwells in a plenitude of joy of 
which as yet you have no conception. Though you may have 
sometimes felt that more joy would break the connection be- 
tween spirit and body, and though you may have sometimes 
said, "Hold thy hand, O God! it is enough," still it doth not 
yet appear what your experiences and satisfactions are to be. 
Have you •been comforted in sorrow ? You know nothing of 
comfort as yet. Have you been strengthened in weakness? 
You know nothing of strength as yet. Have you had light 
poured upon you in the midst of surrounding darkness ? You 
know nothing of light as yet. Wait till the twilight of God 
has fallen on your rising head ; wait till time has brought the 
orb of your life into the full sunrising of heaven, and then, when 
you shall see Him as he is, and enter in to dwell for evermore, 
you shall begin to find that he is " living bread," fed upon by 
more myriads than human language can number — that he is 
the undiminishing loaf of heaven and earth — the " bread of 
life" — the joy, the satisfaction, the strength of all God's peo- 
ple. 



FEBRUARY. 91 

Sweet to look inward, and attend 

The whispers of his love ; 
Sweet to look upward to the place 

Where Jesus pleads above ; 

Sweet on his faithfulness to rest, 

Whose love can never end ; 
Sweet on his covenant of grace 

For all things to depend ; 

Sweet in the confidence of faith, 

To trust his firm decrees ; 
Sweet to lie passive in his hands, 

And know no will but his. 

If such the sweetness of the streams, 

What must the fountain be, 
Where saints and angels draw their bliss 

Immediately from thee ? 



FEBRUARY 20: MORNING. 

Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus 
loved. — John xiii., 23. 

If there be any thing that is striking in the history of Christ's 
intercourse with his disciples, it is the fact that he formed indi- 
vidual attachments for them. He loved all his disciples, but 
he loved them with a varying amount of affection. He mani- 
fested more love toward some than toward others; and he did 
it to teach us what the mind of God is, how it moves, and how 
it carries itself. He bestowed upon them all as much love as 
they could hold, and a great deal more than they could appre- 
ciate. And yet there was this individual love. That which 
belonged to one was not given to another. Each had his own 
personal relations to the Lord Jesus Christ; And it may be 
said in respect to the whole of them that Christ called them by 
their names, and manifested personal familiarity with them, and 
addressed himself to their thought and character as they were 
developed. 

Now this is just exactly that which we need in this world. 
Every heart wants a personal interest in God. Every man 
wants to feel that he is beloved of God, as an individual, separ- 
ated from every other individual. And I believe there is no 
truth more deep or more sacred than the truth that God, look- 
ing abroad over the sphere of his government, does behold men 



92 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

in their individuality. We are taught that the particularity 
of God's knowledge is such that the very hairs of our head are 
all numbered ; and if our hairs, which are the least sensitive, 
the most unconscious — if our very hairs have been sorted and 
singled out, do you suppose that the elements of our character, 
the affiliations of our lives, the tides and throes of our vital ex- 
istence are not known and individually perceived by God ? 



FEBRUARY 20 : EVENING. 

The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the 
Lord.— Job l, 21. 

Ah ! what are we, that we should set ourselves against any 
dealing that it may please our blessed Father to visit upon us ? 
Suppose our expectations are all unrealized ; suppose our life 
does seem well-nigh to be obliterated, like the track of a cara- 
van on the desert ; suppose our cherished hopes are all crum- 
bled and shriveled, like paper in the flame, and destroyed — 
what then ? Has God taken from you those whom you love ? 
Has he taken the lamp out of your house ? Has he taken the 
delight out of your days ? Has he taken the satisfaction out 
of your years ? What then ? Are you too good to suffer ? 
Have you a warrant which would clear you from the experience 
which has belonged to all men that have lived since the first 
birth on earth, and which will belong to all men that will live 
hereafter. Christ was a man of sorrows, and was continually 
acquainted with grief — he was the great Sufferer ; and can you 
stand and look upon him, and say, "I do not deserve to suffer; 
I ought not thus to be grieved and disappointed ?" 



FEBRUARY 21 : MORNING. 

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his 
Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. — Ro- 
mans i., 9. 

What one that has ever prayed has not come upon occasions 
of praying for others, and fluttered on the threshold of petition ; 
not doubting altogether whether God would hear our prayers 



FEBRUARY. 



93 



for ourselves, but wondering' whether he would hear prayers 
for others uttered by us. -He is more likely to hear your pray- 
ers for others than he is to hear your prayers for yourselves, a 
great deal. 

Does ray boy ask me for food ? If he asks for food for him- 
self, I am, to be sure, willing to give it to him ; but if he comes 
to me and says, " Father, there is a poor, shivering, hungry boy 
on the sidewalk — may I cany some food out to him ?" though 
I might have denied him the loaf for himself, when he asks lib- 
erty to carry it to an unknown stranger that is suffering, I say, 
" Go ! go ! carry it to him ;" and I give him double that he 
asks for. If my son asks a thing for himself, I may not think 
it best that he should be indulged; but if he asks a thing for 
his companion in royal friendship, I will be twice as likely to 
grant his request. 

And so, when we ask God for mercies for others, do not you 
suppose he feels the same emotion which we feel under like cir- 
cumstances ? We are conscious that we grant things asked for 
others more readily than things asked for self. And it is so 
with God to a far greater degree than with us. Do you sup- 
pose that when a mother prays for her child God does not feel 
more than he does when she prays for herself? 



FEBRUARY 21 : EVENING. 
This night thy soul shall be required of thee.— Luke xii., 20. 

If God should call you this night, are you prepared to make 
your final account ? Are you prepared to leave things in this 
world just as they are, with no more done.? Are you prepared 
to leave things undone as they are ? Is there no justice that 
you owe ? Have you filled up the measure of bounty ? Is there 
no reparation to be made any where, and no restoration ? Is 
there nothing to be repented of? Is there no half-fulfilled duty 
of love ? Are there no words to be recalled ? Is there no quar- 
rel to be reconciled ? Is there no cleansing of the heart of vile 
thoughts, of wrong dispositions, or of base passions and appe- 
tites? Are you clean as one that emerges from the stream 
bathed and purified ? Would your soul rise up out of your 
body unsullied if to-night God should call it ? Are you pre- 



94 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

pared to meet your Judge, who is of purer eyes than to behold 
iniquity ? Is there no taint, no sully, no selfishness, no cruelty 
of pride, no self-indulgence, no frivolity of vanity, no waste of 
conscience, no death-poison ? How is it with you ? If God 
should call your soul to-night, are you prepared to meet him ? 
Is it not just as our Savior represented it in the parable ? Are 
not men living in a vain show, not a hand-breadth from death, 
though they seem to themselves to be far from it and secure ? 

My God, I know not when I die, 

What is the moment or the hour, 
How soon the clay may broken lie, 

How quickly pass away the flower ; 
Then may thy child prepared be, 

Through time to meet eternity. 



FEBRUARY 22 : MORNING. 

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. 
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. — 1 
Cor. ix., 25. 

The principle of self-denial and of self-control not only is not 
impossible to human nature, but is one of the commonest, one 
of the most universal principles in exercise. When the Chris- 
tian religion introduces self-denial, symbolizing it by the cross, 
it does not introduce a new principle, it does not introduce a 
difficult one. In saying that no man is worthy to be a disciple 
of Christ unless he take up his cross, and deny himself, and fol- 
low the Savior, Jesus is only saying in regard to himself and 
to the world eternal what this world says in regard to every 
man that follows it. There is no trade that does not say to 
every applicant that comes to it, " If you will take up your 
cross and follow me, you shall have my remuneration." There 
is no profession that does not say to every applicant, " If you 
will take up your cross and follow me, I will reward you." 
There is no pleasure, there is no ambition, there is no course 
that men pursue, from the lowest to the highest, in the horizon 
of secular things, that does not say to every man, " Unless you 
take up your cross and follow me, you shall have none of me." 
Now the Lord Jesus Christ, standing like the angel in the Apoc- 
alypse, with eternity for a background, clothed in garments 



FEBRUARY. 



95 



white as snow, as no fuller on earth could white them, and call- 
ing us to honor, and glory, and immortality, says only in be- 
half of these higher things what the whole world says of its 
poor, groveling, and miserable things — "Take up your cross 
and foltow me." Lust says so: why should not love say so? 
Wealth that perishes says so, and earthly glory that fades like 
the laurel wreath says so : why should not the crown of fine 
gold that never grows dim say so ? And if men will hear it 
from the world, oh ! why will they not hear it from God, and 
Christ, and eternity ? 



FEBRUARY 22: EVENING. 

For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we 
have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 
— 2 Cor. v., 1. 

The child that is at school in the beginning of the term jeal- 
ously prepares his little bows and arrows, and traps and springs, 
and riddles and puzzles, and what not. Then they are choice 
treasures to him, and he mourns if any thing befalls them. But 
when the last days of the term come, how generous he is in dis- 
tributing them. He tosses them to one and another of his com- 
panions, saying, " Here ! you may have them if you want them ; 
I do not want them any more." He is glad to get rid of them. 
The things that a month or two ago he guarded sedulously in 
his treasure-chamber now have no value to him, for the hunger 
of father and mother is on him. He says to himself, " Day aft- 
er to-morrow I am off;" and he can not eat, nor sleep, nor play, 
such is the excitement which he feels at the prospect of going 
home so soon. 

What home-sickness is to the child away at school, that to 
the soul is heaven-sickness, which sets us free from the ten 
thousand joys and sorrows of this world, if we really are heav- 
en-sick. 

If one can get such a conception of his own nature as to 
make him impervious to trouble ; if one can attain to a view 
of Christ that is able to lift him above trouble ; if one can ar- 
rive at such a sense of the nearness and efficacy of the spiritual 
world that this world shall seem poor, and low, and mean in 



96 



MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



the comparison, is not that a noble way to render ourselves su- 
perior to earthly things, whose tendency is to annoy us, and 
fret us, and make us unhappy in our present life ? 



FEBRUARYS: MORNING. 

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee : for my strength is 
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my 
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.— 2 Cor. xii., 9. 

It is every Christian's duty to have a victory either over his 
trials, or in them. And this last is the better of the two, and 
far the more glorious ; for it is a higher exhibition of Christian 
manliness to be able to bear trouble than to get rid of it. To 
be able to endure is more manly than to have nothing to en- 
dure. Who could not be a Christian if every time any thing 
touched him to hurt him, prayer was like a shield struck right 
between the weapon and the sensitive skin, so that he could al- 
ways avoid pain ? But if trouble really wrings the nerve and 
muscle of a man, and then a heroism is vouchsafed to him, such 
that he can afford to have it continued, there is awakened in 
him a manhood which is transcendently higher than that which 
would be awakened if the trouble were removed in answer to 
his prayer. 

And this is the promise of the Savior to the apostle, and, by 
analogy, to every one that bears trouble : either that it shall be 
removed, or that grace shall be given with which to bear it. 
God says, " My grace shall be sufficient for you. Take trouble 
and bear it, and I will sustain you under it." 



FEBRUARYS: EVENING. 

And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a 
hundred and thirty years ; few and evil have the days of the years of my life 
been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers 
in the days of their pilgrimage. — Genesis xlvii., 9. 

Let me* say a word of comfort to those whose way of life is 
becoming very hard because they are, coming into the infirmi- 
ties of age. You step three times to make the same space that 



FEBRUARY. 



97 



you used to make with two strides. You multiply your sup- 
ports, and then walk tottering. You have laid bare your head 
like the frostbitten field in autumn. You carry white furrows 
upon your brows. When you think of youth at all, you must 
needs remember, " I have had all the heyday of youth, and I 
never can call it back again ; I have had the prime years of life, 
and those that are left must, in the nature of things, be with 
growing infirmities, with multiplying pains and circumscrip- 
tions. How sad it is. 

Look forward. Hark ! hark ! I hear within the beating of 
this heart another heart. The faint pulsations of this mortal 
current carry within them, as it were, that other pulsation, that 
never, never shall be faint nor cease. For as long as my God 
lives, I shall live ; and as long as he garners and holds the spir- 
its of the just, and of the noble, and the true in heaven, I shall 
be among them. The sun shall go out, and the stars shall for- 
get to shine, and the seasons cease upon the earth, and all things 
shall be whelmed in universal ruin; but "the ransomed of the 
Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting 
joy upon their heads." That land is not far away, and you 
all are coming nearer to it. You have come to it — to its pre- 
cincts and its heralds. You have come within sight of it and 
within sound of it. 

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day ; 
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away ; 
Change and decay on all around I see ; 
thou who changest not, abide with me. 

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes ; 
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies ; 
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee ; 
In life, in death, Lord, abide with me. 



FEBRUARY U: MORNING. 

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us : 
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. — 1 John iii., 16. 

Why should any man suppose himself to be too good to do 

what Christ did. He did not feel that he was misspending his 

life when he carried his power in subservience for the benefit 

of mankind. It is declared of him,"He went about doing good" 

G 



98 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

To do good was the habit of his life. All the power that was 
in his soul, all the outgushing of his spirit, was not for himself. 
He said, " I seek not my own will :" " my meat is to do the 
will of him that sent me." As bread, and meat, and nourish- 
ing fluids re-supply the waste of muscle and bone in a man's 
body, and fill up the measure of his physical strength, so do- 
ing the will of God toward God and toward man filled up the 
measure of Christ's inward strength, and re-supplied the waste 
of his life. It was his joy and his blessedness to carry himself 
as he did. Because he was a better thinker than others, he did 
not arrogate to himself authority over them. Because he had 
a deeper heart than others, he did not separate himself from 
them. Because he had in him all the stores of science, and phi- 
losophy, and spiritual insight, he did not call men vulgar, and 
proudly shun them. He continually laid down his life before 
he died for men. He was the Way, literally, and men seemed 
to walk on him. He put his life, as it were, under their feet, 
aijd carried them. Now, why should we think it hard to do 
that which Christ cheerfully and gladly did for us ? Shall the 
disciple be greater than his master, and the servant greater 
than his lord ? 



FEBRUARY 24: EVENING. 
After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. — Rev. iv., 1. 

Blessed be his name, Christ is the Door of death. You 
know that gate which is spoken of in the Apocalypse — that 
gate more resplendent than ever cunning wit carved among 
men — the gate of pearl — one great pearl. It is called the gate 
of heaven, because it is the gate of death. And yet men go 
wandering on the road, jyad wondering what the experience 
may be, and what the gate of issuing is. The opening of the 
pearly gate — that is dying. Going out into life — that is dy- 
ing. Finding Christ, and being found of him in the moment 
when, the body dropping its veil from before the eye, and the 
spiritual sense opening, we can take hold of the great realities, 
and the only realities above us — that is dying. Christ is the 
Door out of life. As he has been the Door of faith and love in 
life, so he is the Door of exit. The coming of the Son of Man 



FEBRUARY. 99 

for his own is death. When men are death-struck, they are 
death-called; and when men -are death-called, they are God- 
called; and when they are God-called, they are Christ-found. 
As we have had Christ in life, we are to have him in dying. 
Through him we shall die valiantly. He is the Door to men. 
He is the blessed Door of reception ; and he shall stand for all 
those that have put their faith in him, for all those that have 
trusted him, in that great invisible world, when, utter strangers, 
we shall find ourselves well known — nay, shall know even as we 
are known. There we shall find ourselves ; there we shall find 
our children ; there we shall find our most honored companions ; 
there we shall find our best love ; there we shall find our soul's 
life ; there, with God, we shall rest from temptation, from un- 
manly defection; and our every aspiration shall be fulfilled, 
and our joy shall be completed in over-measure forever and 
ever. 

Thou art the Way ; hy thee alone 

From sin and death we flee ; 
And he who would the Father seek, 

Must seek him, Lord, by thee. 

Thou art the Life ; the rending tomb 

Proclaims thy conquering arm ; 
And those who put their trust in thee, 

Nor death nor hell shall harm. 



FEBRUARY 25 : MORNING. 
Seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church.— 1 Cor. xiv., 12. 

Me:^ are too ambitious, it is said. No ; they are not ambi- 
tious enough. They are ambitious in wrong ways, and proud 
of the wrong things. If a man takes his ambition from divine 
conceptions, he can not have too much of it ; and if a man's 
pride is divinely filled, it can never be too strong or too high. 
If it be God, truth, justice, love, purity, fidelity ; if it be all the 
things which go to make soul-riches, that a man is ambitious 
for, and that he is proud over, then the more pride and ambi- 
tion he has the better. But the trouble is that men are ambi- 
tious and proud with reference to foolish things. It is because 
men have such a mean pride, that pride is mean in history and 
in literature. If men were proud of things high and noble, then 



JOO MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

pride would be redemptive ; but as it is, men are proud of things 
that appeal to the passions, and that lead to selfishness, and sor- 
didness, and cruelty. And our ambition is low. Men ought 
to be made saints by their ambition, whereas, in point of fact, 
its tendency, in the main, is to make them any thing but saints. 



FEBRUARY 25 : EVENING. 

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.— Psalm 
xxx., 5. 

Trouble comes to us all, not to make us sad, but to make 
us sober ; not to make us sorry, but to make us wise ; not to 
make us despondent, but by its darkness to refresh us, as the 
night refreshes the day ; not to impoverish us, but to enrich us, 
as the plow enriches the field — to multiply our joy, as the seed 
is multiplied a hundred-fold by planting. Our conception of 
life is not divine, and our thought of garden-making is not in- 
spired. Our earthly flowers are quickly planted, and they 
quickly bloom, and then they are gone ; while God would plant 
those flowers which, by transplantation, shall live forever. 

Nay, ask not back your blossoms, 

To the palm-tree said the Nile ; 
Let me keep them, said the river, 

With its sweet and sunny smile. 

And the palm gave up its blossoms 

To its friend so wise and old, 
And saw them all, unsighing, 

Float down the river's gold. 

The amber-tresses vanished, 

And the dear spring-fragrance fled ; 
But the welcome fruit in clusters 

Came richly up instead. 

'Tis thus we gain by losing, 

And win by failure here ; 
We doff the gleaming tinsel 

The golden crown to wear. 

Then let the blossoms perish, 

And let the fragrance go ; 
All the surer and the larger 

Is the harvest we shall know. 

All the sweeter and the louder 

Our song of harvest-home, 
When earth's ripe autumn smileth, 

And tho reaping-day has come. 



FEBRUARY. 



FEBRUARY 26 : MORNING. 



101 



But by the grace of God I am what I am : and his grace which was bestowed 
upon me was not in vain ; but I labored more abundantly than they all ; yet 
not I, but the grace of God which was with me. — 1 Cor. xv., 10. 

A great many persons try to serve God softly. The devil 
puts excuses into their mouths like these: "I ought not to 
meddle with sacred things. I ought not to put on airs in re- 
ligion, or give people reason to suppose that I do." And under 
these guises they do hut little, and very soon wither, and go 
back to their old state. Now, no matter how wicked you have 
been, make haste to redeem the hours that God gives you, when 
you are converted, wherewith to serve him with energy and 
faithfulness. Have you been a swearing man? Your lips 
must not be dumb now in the praise of God, whom you have 
been blaspheming all your life. Have you, in all the ports of 
the world, known all iniquity ? Then, wherever you go now, 
you are, to be sure, to " eschew evil ;" but are you not going to 
be a witness for good ? Ten thousand men have known you 
to be a wicked man ; and is there to be no signal by which 
they shall know that you have abandoned sin and left the do- 
minion of Satan ? It is bad enough for a man to hang out a 
piratical flag ; but when he has heartily repented, and come 
back to allegiance, and is engaged in lawful commerce, shall he 
be ashamed to hoist the flag of his own country and carry it ? 
And are you ashamed of the colors of him who is your salva- 
tion ? Are you ashamed to speak for Christ — to wrestle with 
men, and plead with them in his behalf? Ought you not, in 
all places and in all company, freely, boldly, and manfully to 
say, " Christ is my Master ? Once the devil was, and all men 
know it : now Christ is, and I mean that all men shall know it, 
by the grace of God." • 



FEBRUARY 26: EVENING. 
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things 
which are not seen are eternal.— 2 Cor. iv., 18. 

Ton do not know what is in an organ till the stops are drawn. 
Xobody knows what he is till love draws some stops, till infan- 



102 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

cy draws other stops, and till trials draw still other stops of bis 
being. Many men never know wbat are tbe depths of their 
nature till their children reveal them. Idolaters that worship 
at the altar of the cradle, when they find that the sweet singer 
and prattler of the evening has gone from them for evermore, 
stand, at first, stunned and amazed. And as, with rest, reason 
comes hack, and realization of their loss ; and as, day in and 
day out, no little one clambers at the knee, or frolics about the 
room, or makes music with its voice, they say, " All I have — all 
my industry ; all my wealth ; my name ; my place — would I 
give if God would but return to me my child." And what is 
that but saying that the whole world, being measured in the 
scale of love, even from a greater to a lesser nature, shrinks 
and becomes insignificant? When you have a realization of 
what parental affection is, you feel that there is more in the 
heart-beat of one little child than in all the pulsations of busi- 
ness throughout the world. In such hours we realize that those 
things which we have regarded as most visionary are really 
substantial, and those which we have regarded as really sub- 
stantial are in truth visionary. 



FEBRUARY 27 : MORNING. 

And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation ; even as our be- 
loved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written 
unto you. — 2 Peter iii., 15. 

A gbeat many persons are perpetually despondent because 
they feel that they are so unworthy before God. They have a 
vague sense of being very sinful, of being weak, of being worth- 
less, of being powerful to do wrong, and feeble to do right. 
Such persons need the assurance that God takes us up, and 
looks upon us with tenderness, and undertakes to nourish us, 
and train us, and educate us here with reference to the whole 
of that which we are to be when we stand on Zion and before 
God. 

In our earthly education we are like a painter's canvas. The 
artist has an inspiration to-day, and begins to lay in the pic- 
ture. The canvas is blurred to every body's eyes but his own ; 



FEBBUAMT. 103 

he knows what he means to bring out. On the second and 
third days there is not much apparent advancement in the pic- 
ture to the superficial observer, but the painter knows that he 
is working it up to his own interior idea. And by-and-by, 
when the picture is perfected, it represents that which he saw 
from the very beginning. 

And where we are spoken of as being presented before the 
throne without spot or wrinkle, I think I see the trace of the 
same thing. God is, in this life, training us, educating us. He 
bears with us, and loves us, and cherishes us. Rude and un- 
lovely as we are, God is producing in us the divine likeness. 
He is painting on, and is bringing us nearer and nearer to that 
likeness ; and by-and-by, when we are perfected, and we lift up 
our glorified face before the throne and admiring angels, we 
shall stand representing that which he saw from the very be- 
ginning. Our imperfections God does not love, our sin he does 
not love, our rudeness he does not love ; but he waits patiently 
for the time when we shall have advanced beyond these, and 
become that which he is making of us. 



FEBRUARYS: EVENING. 

And these was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against 
the sepulchre. — Matt, xxvii., 61. 

How strangely stupid is grief. It neither learns nor knows, 
nor wishes to learn or know. "When the sorrowing sisters sat 
over against the door of Christ's sepulchre, did they see the two 
thousand years that .have passed triumphing away ? Did they 
see any thing but this : " Our Christ is gone." Your Christ 
and my Christ came from their loss ; myriad mourning hearts 
have had resurrection in the midst of their grief; and yet the 
sorrowing watchers looked at the seed-form of this result, and 
saw nothing. What they regarded as the end of life was the 
very preparation for coronation ; for Christ was silent that he 
might live again in tenfold power. They saw it not. They 
mourned, and wept, and went away, and came again, drawn by 
their hearts to the sepulchre. Still it was a sepulchre, unpro- 
phetic, voiceless, lustreless. 

So with us. Every man sits over against the sepulchre in his 



104 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

garden, in the first instance, and says, " This woe is irremedia- 
ble. I see no benefit in it. I will take no comfort from it." 
And yet, right in our deepest and worst mishaps, often and 
often our Christ is lying, waiting for resurrection. Where our 
death seems to be, there our Savior is. Where the end of hope 
is, there is the brightest beginning of fruition. Where the 
darkness is thickest, there the bright beaming light that never 
is to set is about to emerge. 

When the whole experience is consummated, then we find 
that a garden is not disfigured by a sepulchre. Our joys are 
made better if there be a sorrow in the midst of them, and our 
sorrows are made bright by the joys that God has planted 
around about them. The flowers may not be pleasing to us, 
they may not be such as we are fond of plucking, but they are 
heart-flowers. Love, hope, faith, joy, peace — these are flowers 
which are planted around about every grave that is sunk in a 
Christian heart. For the present it is not "joyous, but griev- 
ous ; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of 
righteousness." 

Twas by a path of sorrows drear 

Christ entered into rest ; 
And shall I look for roses here, 
Or think that earth is bless'd ? 
Heaven's whitest lilies blow 
From earth's sharp crown of woe : 
Who here his cross can meekly bear, 
Shall wear the kingly purple there. 

And yet, dear Lord, this shrinking heart 

Still trembles as of yore ; 
Come, Cross beloved, nor e'er depart 
Till I have, learned thy lore ! 
Here, scorned with him I love, 
Here, crowned with him above ; 
Here to the cross with Jesus pressed, 
There comforted with him, and bless'd. 



FEBRUARY 28 : MORNING. 

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin ; and sin, when it is 
finished, bringeth forth death. — James i., 15. 

How great is the terribleness of wickedness. How it eats 
like a canker. How it corrupts the manliness of man. How 
it blinds eyes that otherwise would see. How it deafens men's 



FEBRUARY. 105 

ears to the truth which otherwise they would hear. How it 
imperils a man in his very fibre ; in the very elements of his 
manhood. Is there any joy that goes with wickedness which 
can compensate for these terrible damages which it inflicts 
upon men ? Is there any thing in this life, any thing in the 
life to come, that can be a compensation for that sure condem- 
nation which shall overtake monstrous wickedness? It is a 
terrible thing to be a sinner. It is a terrible thing to be a sin- 
ner in a man's passions and appetites. It is a terrible thing to 
have been confederated in sin, and to have been webbed up in 
it, and to have been changed inwardly, until the light that was 
in the man has become darkness. God puts conscience in a 
man as a kind of signal, guiding light, by which he may keep 
in right courses ; but when that light is darkness, how great is 
that darkness ! It is a terrible thing to be a sinner, in all its 
moods, in all its degrees. The least sin is a yeast and leaven 
of condemnation ; and how much more these mighty sins, these 
ocean-like sins, of vast, unfathomable capacities. 



FEBRUARY 28 : EVENING. 

Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the flowers appear on the 
earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is 
heard in our land ; the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with 
the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my ijair one, and come 
away. — Solomon's Song ii., 11-13. 

Scripture has no passages that are mere ornaments. Unlike 
all other literature, Scripture never merely decorates. If there 
is a figure, it is always for some errand of moral meaning. 
There is no poetry for mere sesthetical pleasure. There is al- 
ways profit withal. 

Nature, then, teaches that to every season of trouble and 
overthrow there comes resurrection. In the deepest January 
of the year there is a nerve that runs forward to June. Life is 
never extinguished. That which seems to be death reaches 
forward and touches that which is vital. 

The year breaks cloudily, with many slips and many retro- 
cessions. To-day open, to-morrow shut. Birds too early tempt- 
ed are driven away by bleak winds. And yet spring, once 



10 6 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

come upon the earth, is never banished again until it has reaped 
a victory. • All checks, and haltings, and struggles, and storms 
can not alter the inevitable year. So is it in human affairs. 
There are cold and dark December days. But be patient; 
they too have a June waiting for them. 

It is hard to go down into the winter of trouble. It is hard 
to find one's self beset with all the difficulties that oftentimes 
attend the household. But when a family has through trouble 
and affliction found the way to God ; when through trials and 
sufferings a family has come to the knowledge of an ever-pres- 
ent Savior, who is afflicted in all our afflictions, who bears our 
sins, and- who carries our sorrows, to that family, though it be 
in its darkest January days, has come the time of the singing 
of birds. It is not so much matter that you should be lifted 
out of your want, as that you should have peace and joy in the 
Holy Ghost. 



FEBRUARY 29 : MORNING. 

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust 
doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.— Matt, vi., 20. 

No man can become bankrupt whose wealth consists, not in 
things of this world, but in moral qualities. A good candle 
will give light in a silver candlestick as well as in a golden 
one. And if you are rich and good, your riches may make your 
goodness more glorious ; but if you were to become poor, your 
goodness would not be put out by your poverty. If a man has 
a noble nature, he can not lose it by being placed in adverse 
circumstances. The greatest men that were ever on earth 
walked with a clouted shoe and patched raiment. The best 
men that ever lived ground between their teeth the poorest 
wheat, the coarsest bread. Of the men that bless the world, 
you will find that there are more that live in hovels than there 
are that live in palaces. If a man is really great, that which 
makes him great is imperishable, no matter what his circum- 
stances in life may be. Such men are not usually set around 
about with wealth; but if it pleased God that they should be, 
you may be sure of one thing — that when you brushed the 



FEBRUARY. 107 

wealth away, you would not take any of their greatness from 
them. On the contrary, if a man is righteous and godly, if a 
man's life consists in soul-treasure, no matter what may befall 
him, his nature can not be touched ; it will ever shine on. If 
he is deprived of his worldly surroundings, it is all the more 
affecting and influential. 

FEBRUARY 29 : EVENING. 
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, Lord. — Psalm cxxx., 1. 

There are emergencies of religious experience in which the 
soul can do nothing but simply abandon itself, and lay hold on 
God. I suppose that every person who has a work of grace 
that is deeply rooted in him remembers hours and days in 
which there was nothing that his soul could rest upon. There 
is just this one thing : helplessness the most utter hanging upon 
the neck of strength the most august; a sense of the most pro- 
found unworthiness standing before the most profound worth, 
and purity, and excellence. As the stars that rise in the morn- 
ing over against the light never rise so brightly nor last so 
long as the stars of the evening that rise from darkness, and 
that grow bright by darkness, so out of our spiritual experi- 
ences, though there rise up bright conceptions of God, there are 
none that compare for one single moment with those thoughts 
of God when the soul feels prostrate in the dust with its own 
sinfulness. There is majesty in the thought of mercy, and 
wonder in the graciousness of God, when we feel that we are 
sinful. In these wonderful hours, when, touched of the Divine 
finger, we are pervaded with a sense of our unworthiness, there 
is but one thing for us to do, to hope in Jesus Christ, and hope 
simply, or else despair. Not that you understand how he 
atones and pardons ; not that you can see what is the relation 
of Christ to you. There is no philosophy about it ; there is 
nothing but this simple instinct of hope ; we clasp, we hold on 
to Christ, and say, " Thou art my anchor ; thou art my safe- 
guard and my surety." It is a feeling, not a thought. 

Trembling before thine awful tbrone, 
Lord ! in dust my sins I own : 
Justice and Mercy for my life 
Contend !— oh smile, and heal the strife ! 



108 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

The Savior smiles ! Upon my soul 
New tides of hope tumultuous roll ; 
His voice proclaims my pardon found, 
Seraphic transport wings the sound ! 

Earth has a joy unknown in heaven — 
The new-born peace of sin forgiven ! 
Tears of such pure and deep delight, 
Ye angels ! never dimmed your sight. 



MARCH 1: MORNING. 
The integrity of the upright shall guide them.— Prov. xi., 3. 

Some persons are said to stand in their own light. , Are there 
not some of you who have apparently stood in your own light ? 
Are there not men whom you have known from their youth up, 
who were not over-scrupulous in business affairs, who became 
millionaires, an.d rose to eminence and power, and now stand 
high and are prospered ? And do you say, " If I could have 
got over some prejudices that I had, so as not to have been so 
afraid of departing a little from the line of rectitude, I might 
have been better off than I am now ; but I stood in my own 
light in my youth, and have been struggling against the cur- 
rent ever since?" But have you not maintained your con- 
science, your love of truth, your aspirations after a higher and 
better life ? " Yes, I have those still. But then I have no 
funds, I have no homestead ; I have nothing before me." Noth- 
ing before you ! You have the kingdom of God Almighty be- 
fore you. You have all glory before you. If you have saved 
truth, and conscience, and love, and faith, do not envy any body. 
The wealth of the world will pass away very soon, but what 
bankruptcy can come over the exchequer of God? And you' 
are heirs of God. You did not stand in your own light when 
you refused to yield to temptation. 

MARCH 1: EVENING-. 
He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. — Matt, x., 39. 

Are you sorrowing in family matters? Are you conscious 
that you are bound with bonds and cords from which you 
could only release yourself by rending what are called the de- 



MARCH. 109 

cencies and proprieties of life ? Are you bearing the yoke, and 
suffering for a parent, a brother, a sister, an orphan, some help- 
less or dependent one ? You who are yielding your opportu- 
nities, and joys, and life for another, patiently, are carrying the 
cross of Christ. Yes, and it is Christ in you that is inspiring 
you to do that, and saying to you, " Child, a little while longer 
lose your life. Do not be afraid to be lavish of it. Pour it 
out. Do not be economical. Lose it, lose it, and you shall 
save it unto life eternal." 

Who are they that I see triumphing in the heavenly host? 
They that lived in ceiled houses ? They that walked the earth 
with crowns upon their heads ? They that knew no sorrow ? 
No. " These are they which came out of great, tribulation, 
and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb ;" they that cried from under the altar, " How 
long, O Lord, how long ?" — these are they that stand highest 
in the kingdom of God. Heaven is just before you. And 
you that seem to have a long and weary path of suffering will 
soon be done with your period of trial, and Avill rise to honor 
and glory in Christ Jesus. 

Tis but a little while — the way is dreary, 
The night is dark, but we are nearing land ; 

Oh for the rest of heaven, for we are weary, 
And long to mingle with the deathless band ! 

A little while, and we shall dwell forever 
Within our bright, our everlasting home ; 

Where time, or space, or death no more can sever 
Our grief-wrung hearts, and pain can never come. 



MARCH 2: MORNING. 
Let thy saints rejoice in goodness. — 2 Chron. vi., 41. 
I recollect, when I was young, hearing a great many ex- 
hortations to men who were not Christians, on the ground that 
if they became such they would be exceedingly happy ; and I 
remember distinctly my impression that a Christian was always 
happy ; that only Christians were happy ; and that if I became 
a Christian I should know it, just as I know when I go out of 
darkness into light, or out of shadow into sunshine. I thought 
there would be a palpable and distinct change of sensation, and 



HO MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

that, so long as I remained faithful as a Christian, I should ex- 
perience uninterrupted and transcendent joy. 

It is true that the Word of God declares joy to be one of the 
fruits of the Spirit. Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost are a 
part of the kingdom of God in us. And yet I think that if 
any man sets out to find joy it will be fictitious. It certainly 
will not be that joy which the "Word of God contemplates, 
and which is unconscious ; which comes, as it were, unawares ; 
which comes, not in the form of exhilaration and ecstasy, but 
in those milder forms which constitute satisfaction rather than 
intense pleasure. 

The effect of the whole of religious living is to produce joy- 
fulness. If, however, you single that out, and hold it up as the 
special thing after which you seek, you will come short of it, or 
you will only get a spurious kind of joy; but if you make it 
your highest end and aim to live for the glory of God and for 
the welfare of men, and seek your own soul's highest manhood 
in seeking these things, you will be happy. 

MARCH 2: EVENING. 
The wise shall inherit glory. — Prov. iii., 35. 
I esteem it to be one of the blessings of revelation that it 
does not make known to us a vast, cold, fixed, immovable heav- 
en ; that it presents to us a heaven which draws near to us in 
those aspects which we particularly need. If we are over- 
tasked, heaven comes to us as a place of rest. If we are impa- 
tient of our narrow, circumscribed spheres of labor, heaven 
comes to us as a sphere of unbounded opportunity. If our cir- 
cumstances are such that we have no resources for pleasure, 
heaven comes to us as a land of true delight. If we are tired 
of this world as the abode of imperfect human nature, heaven 
draws near and presents itself to us as the home of just men 
made perfect. If we find all human creatures to be weak and 
fallible, heaven reveals to us God and all the glory of the God- 
head. "Whatever our want may be, whether of joy, or sorrow, 
or hope, or aspiration, over against that want heaven bends 
down, and is easily moulded by our imagination. Heaven is 
made up of divine and glorious qualities. 



MARCH. HI 

MARGE 3: MORNING. 
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him here, and proclaimed 
the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, 
The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant 
in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and 
transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting 
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children 
unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed 
his head toward the earth, and worshiped. — Exod. xxxiv.,5-8. 

Glorious as this passage begins, it conies forth in the end, I 
think, with undiminished glory ; and all the grandeur of that 
which is merciful and lovely in God is equaled by the grandeur 
of that indignation with which he looks upon things that are 
unmerciful and unlovely. There is a necessary repugnance in 
real goodness to all that is not good. 

The judicial forms which the declarations on this point take 
in the Bible flow naturally from the moral qualities of things. 
When it is said in the New Testament that God is a consum- 
ing fire, I feel that it is not inconsistent with this declaration 
to couple with it those declarations in which God is represent- 
ed as having all the gentleness of a kind nurse, and all the ten- 
derness of a loving mother. . These two traits, as applied to the 
divine character, to me seem perfectly accordant. 

You feel that there is nothing sweeter than the love and 
tenderness which a mother manifests toward her infant. It is 
sweeter to her than the perfume of the choicest flowers can be 
to any one ; and yet, touch that child with harm, touch that 
child with injury, and see how, in a moment, that which was 
summer in the mother's heart before is now changed to fierce 
storms. And you are glad of it. God meant that it should 
be so, for the child's defense. See how benign and beauteous 
is Justice when unobstructed and'uninterrupted ; but see how 
grand Justice becomes when it hews its path if blocked up. 



MARCH 3: EVENING. 

Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear ! even cry out unto thee 
of violence, and thou wilt not save ! — Hab. i., 2. 

How long must men suffer? Just as Ions; as God sees that 



112 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

as scholars they need to suffer. The period of their suffering 
is measured by their need. If a little does all that is necessary 
to be done, then that little is enough, and if not, then more is 
required. And if much and continuous suffering for a whole 
lifetime is needful, then a whole life of suffering is only just 
enough. For do you forget that this whole life, compared to 
the life to come, is not so big as the little village school-house 
where you learned your letters is, compared to the great globe 
itself? And what matters it if we suffer much and long here? 
Your manhood, your future existence, your immortality — these 
are of far more value than the sensations of your earthly state. 
God be thanked that this law of suffering is applied to us by 
an infinitely wiser rule than we could administer or conceive if 
it were explained to us. God administers suffering, saying to 
every one of us, " When you have suffered a while." " How 
long, Lord ? O Lord, how long ?" — to that no answer ever came. 
As long as it is necessary, and, as a general rule, as long as suf- 
fering is irksome, and you say, "I can not bear it," so long you 
need it. "When you have had suffering till you can say, " If it 
please God I can carry it all my life," then, if ever, God can re- 
lease you from it. 

O thou! so weary of thy self-denials, 

And so impatient of thy little cross, 
Is it so hard to bear thy daily trials, 

To count all earthly things a gainful loss ? 

What if thou always suffer tribulation, 
And if thy Christian warfare never cease, 

The gaining of the quiet habitation 
Shall gather thee to everlasting peace. 



MARCH 4: MORNING. 

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature. — Matt. 
vi. , 27. 

Why take anxious thought for the things of to-morrow? 
Suppose you think ever so much, will it make your case any 
better ? Can you change to-morrow ? Can you render inop- 
erative the law of cause and effect ? Can you by solicitous 
forelooking throw light into the shadow? Can you dissipate 
the lurking, or the supposed lurking evils by a consideration 
of them ? It is an impossible thing. 



MARCH. 



113 



You are master of yourself to-day ; but God gives you su- 
premacy for only one day at a time. To-morrow is not your 
kingdom. Of to-morrow you have no sceptre till to-morrow is 
to-day. No man owns any thing until it has been converted 
into to-day. As fast, as time is ours it is brought to us, and 
then we administer over it. I never saw a man that could not 
get through a single day. That is a space that almost any 
body can stride over. Almost every body says, " I could get 
through to-day if I had reason to believe that to-morrow — " 
Oh ! to-morrow does not exist to you. If you can bear your 
burden to-day, if you can carry your cross to-day, if you can 
endure your pain to-day, if you can suffer the shame of to-day, 
if you can put down the fear of to-day, if you can find philoso- 
phy of contentment to-day, you will get along well enough. 
Take what comes to you to-day. 

MARCH 4: EVENING. 

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with man- 
na, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might 
make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. — Deut. viii., 3. 

Trouble takes off the varnish that overlays the raw material 
of things, and lets us see them just as they are. It recalls us 
from idols, from vain plans, from sins, and from backslidings. 
Assaulted, as we constantly are, by the temptations of the 
world, we are often unconsciously drawn, little by little, away 
from God, until at last some trouble comes upon us, and opens 
our eyes to our true condition. God, by trouble, brings us to 
repentance ; and repentance opens the closed gate, and gives 
us all the sweetness of a garden of fruits and flowers. Blessed 
are they that know how to find heaven without leaving the 
earth. Blessed are they the door of whose closet, when they 
shut it, shuts out the world. And where men, by business or 
pleasure, or any worldly attraction, have been led to abandon 
the closet, blessed are they if they bethink themselves and seek 
God again in that secret place, and again feel as if they were in 
the garden of Paradise, where rare and beautiful vines are lifted 
up, and sweet flowers exhale delightful fragrance around. One 
H 



114 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

can afford to bear all the troubles and afflictions that are put 
upon us in this world if by them he is taught how to pray and 
commune with his God. 



MARCH 5: MORNING. 

For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.— 
Matt, vi., 32. 

That sentence hangs in the heavens like a bell, to me ; and 
every time I take hold of it, it is like a sexton's taking hold of 
the old church-bell. If I pull it, it rings ; and I hear it every 
time — " Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of 
all these things." Nobody else knows as God knows. He 
knows hundreds of things that nobody else can know. He 
knows many things that nobody else ought to know. He 
knows many experiences that you will not tell, and many that 
you do not understand. Naked and open are you before him 
with whom you have to do. There is no sorrow so deep, there 
is no darkness so profound, there is no complication of circum- 
stances so entangling, but that you may say, "There is nothing 
that affects me which my heavenly Father does not know." 



MARCH 5 : EVENING. 

If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to 
bridle the whole body. — James iii., 2. 

There are a great many persons who examine themselves 
for motives — which is right ; but how many persons examine 
themselves in the matter of speech ? Do you know what your 
habits are about talking ? Do you talk a great deal too much ? 
Do you say a'great many things heedlessly? Do you indulge 
a great deal in outswelling words of pride ? Are your words 
like sparks of fire, or are they like drops of oil ? Do you make 
life sweet with your tongue wherever you go, or is your tongue 
like the tongue of a serpent, carrying terror whenever ' your 
mouth opens and it comes forth ? How often do. you think of 
your speech ? Do you know any thing about it ? I venture 
to say that every person in your neighborhood knows more 



MARCH. 115 

about it than you do. The exaggerations, the overcolorings, 
the misrepresentations, the lies which escape us when we are 
speaking about ourselves, about our children, about our fam- 
ilies, about our property, about our neighbors, about every 
thing that we have to do with — what must be their influence 
upon the world ? Still, how few there are that know any thing 
about the use of their tongue. " Who is a wise man and en- 
dued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a 
good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." 



MARCH Q: MORNING. 
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be 
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. — Romans viii., 18. 

Dr. Patson" said, when he lay dying, " If Christians could 
only understand the glory that there is in being children of 
God, I think they would go about the streets shouting, ' I am a 
child of God ! I am a child of God !' " And I think that if the 
glory that awaits you in the future ; if the love that is treasured 
up for you in heaven ; if all the companionship that there longs 
for your coming, that it may be more joyful than now — I think 
that if these things could be revealed to you, if the rind of this 
world could be stripped off, and you could see the blessedness 
of the fruit of a hope in Christ Jesu^, you would, in the midst 
of tears, and bereavements, and heart-achings, and yokes, and 
burdens, and pressures, and spear-points, and sword-thrusts, and 
sharp nettlings, and the piercing of thorns, say, " I am a Chris- 
tian ; I am a child of God ; and I count these things as nothing, 
that I may win the glory that awaits me beyond this world." 

Be of good cheer. The time of your tarrying here below 
is short. "In the world ye shall have tribulation ;• but be of 
good cheer : I have overcome the world." 

Time's glory fades ; its beauty now 

Has ceased to lure or blind : 
Each gay enchantment here below 

Has lost its power to bind. 

Then welcome toil, and care, and pains, 

And welcome sorrow too ! 
All toil is rest, all grief is gain, 

With such a prize in view. 



116 MOBNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Come, crown and throne ; come, robe and palm ; 

Burst forth, glad stream of peace ; 
Come, holy city of the Lamb ; 

Kise, Sun of Kighteousness. 



MARCH 6 : EVENING. 

I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the 
weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more 
blessed to give than to receive. — Acts xx., 35. 

It is more blessed to do for others than to have others do for 
you. It is more blessed to bestow good upon others than to 
have others bestow good upon you. It is more blessed to teach 
than to be taught. The great law of happiness is the law of 
outgoing, and not the law of incoming. 

But the world does not believe a word of it. Neither does 
the Church, for the most part. Although Christians, when 
under examination, indorse that text, they do not live it. The 
great operating principle in the world and throughout human 
society still is, that a man is to be happy in proportion as he 
gets and has. And so human life whirls round and round with 
its vortex, sucking in as much as possible. And human life is 
full of disappointment, full of echoes of sorrow and trouble. It 
is the few only that have accepted this philosophy of the Sav- 
ior, and found out that men are to be happy in proportion as 
they are able to give from 1 themselves to others. 



MARCH 7 : MORNING. 
Hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the spirit which he hath given 
us. — Uohn iii., 24. 

. When once we have attained a clear sense of God in his per- 
sonality, the next higher development of the mind is to give it 
diffusion, so that the heavens begin to declare the glory of a 
God, and the earth to show his handiwork to us, and we see 
him in the morning and evening, in every season, in the tree, 
and grass, and brook, and rock, and flower, in the brute crea- 
tion, and in all the developments of human society. Every 
where, and always, there is this sense of God universally pres- 
ent, until at last we come to that stage of blessed development 



MARCH. 



117 



in which we are no longer dependent upon times and seasons, 
or upon places of worship, as at the beginning we were. All 
days are Sunday, all hours are hours of worship, and all places 
are temples to us. But this is the later stage of development. 
As the result of culture and habit, and the use of spiritual influ- 
ences, we come into a state in which, day and night, we are 
never without a sense of our Father's presence. We live un- 
der the same roof with him. He fulfills to us the promise, " I 
will come in and abide with you." 

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word, 
But as thou dwell'st with thy disciples, Lord, 
Familiar, condescending, patient, free, 
Come, not to sojourn, but to abide with me. 



MARCH 1: EVENING. 
Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. — Romans xiii., 11 . 

Christian brethren, we are advancing nearer and nearer, ev- 
ery year, to the consummation of our life-work. We are com- 
ing, every year, nearer and nearer to that final disclosure, when 
God shall reveal to us what we are. I have sometimes fancied 
what would be the cause of most surprise and joy in the other 
life. In some hours, when higher moral feelings predominate, 
it seems to me that the first thing that will fill the heart of men 
will be the vision of God — the vision of the Redeemer. In oth- 
er hours, when craving affections are strongest, it seems to me 
that whatever may be the glory of the presence of God, the 
first things the heart will recognize will be its lost ones. At 
other times, when high and heroic purposes of life are in the 
ascendency, it seems to me that the sanctified spirits of the no- 
ble men that have dwelt upon the earth — the great assembly 
of the just made perfect — will first astonish and rejoice the 
heart. But I think, after all, that scarcely less than before God 
himself, we shall stand in utter surprise and wonder before our- 
selves when what we are is brought out ; when what life has 
made us begins to be disclosed ; when, standing in the divine 
presence, the soul seems, even in that comparison, so noble and 
so full of glory that it is able to say, " I am satisfied." The 
glory that is to be ours doth not yet appear, but there are 
glimpses of it. 



118 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



MARCH 8 : MORNING. 

Behold that which I have seen : it is good and comely for one to eat and to 
drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all 
the days of his life, which God giveth him ; for it is his portion. — Eccles. v., 18. 

You can commit a great many mistakes, but none greater 
than that of supposing that a man's life is to consist of the 
abundance of the things which he possesses. You may have 
wealth, you may have honor, you may have respect among 
men — but mark, these are the lower, the transient, the incident- 
al things. They are what your clothes are as compared with 
your body, and what your body is compared with your soul. 
They are servile, instrumental things. But if you wish to live, 
you must have food. Every faculty in your moral nature re- 
quires food. Your yearnings and aspirations must be fed. And 
where, this side of Paradise, this side of the tree of life, this side 
of God Almighty, can you get the food which these faculties, 
and yearnings, and aspirations need '? There, oh my soul ! must 
thou come, or hunger on. Woe, woe is their lot whose whole 
life is unvaried hunger. Bread enough in my father's house, 
and to spare, and I perish with hunger ! — that is the testimony 
of thrice ten thousand lives every day. 

Christian brother, you have learned not to despise the world. 
You have learned that feeding the soul with God does not dis- 
possess one of any of the things that it is desirable he should 
have, but enhances their value to him. It is your duty, there- 
fore, to bear such a witness that those about you shall see that 
loving God, and feeding the soul at God, makes you, in all re- 
lations of life, more appetizing. It is your duty to show the 
world that the way to have pleasure is to take things by the 
highest, because that carries the whole scale with it. When 
you take things by the highest you take them in harmonies, 
and when you take them by the lowest you take them in mono- 
chords. He that eats the divine bread is capable of enjoying 
other things in the proportion in which he feeds on that bread. 
We are capable of enjoying the things of this world just in the 
proportion in which our higher appetite is satisfied. Bear that 
testimony to the world. 



MARCH. 119 

Now God be praised, and God alone ! 

The Source of joy thou art ; 
Thy love no stint or bound hath known, 

But loves a happy heart, 
And sends full many a bright-clear day 
To cheer us on our mortal way, 

Bids many a cloud depart. 

So grant me, then, in weal and woe, 

Joyful and true to be ; 
And when life's lamp is burning low, 

And death at hand I see, 
Then let this joy pierce through its pain, 
And turn my very death to gain 

Of endless joys with thee. 



MABCE 8 : EVENING-. 

Thou wilt show me the path of life : in thy presence is fullness of joy ; at 
thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. — Psalm xvi., 11. 

"VYhek the tide has been coming in, I have often seen how 
it chafed and fretted, running into some narrow-mouthed hay, 
filling it, swirling round, and lapping up on the shores, till by- 
and-by, still flowing on, it filled the bay full, the tide had spent 
itself, there ran a smoothing ripple all over the surface, and the 
whole bay at last was at rest. So the soul, while yet it is be- 
ing filled, is disturbed by ripples and eddies ; but by-and-by, 
when it shall have been filled full of the power and presence of 
God, it will be satisfied, and will be perfectly at peace, and will 
be full of joy ; and singing forever and forever shall be its 
sweet employment in heaven. Sorrow and sighing shall flee 
away, and the old dark, mourning world we shall remember as 
children in manhood remember the moment's shower of their 
youth that broke up their pleasure-party. All the sufferings 
that we have experienced while getting our education will, 
when we shall once have come to our perfect manhood in Christ 
Jesus, seem to us only as dreams. And the price that we shall 
have paid will seem as nothing, and less than nothing, in com- 
parison with the exceeding glory of that which eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived. 

You are nearer home than you think. A step more, and you 
shall rest ; or, if far away, you are under a safe convoy. Press 
forward. Let nothing discourage you. Though your attain- 
ments may be small, and though your sins may be many, re- 



120 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES, 

member that you are Christ's, not because you are good, but 
because you are to be developed into goodness by him. Trust 
him ; follow him ; that by-and-by you may live with him. 



MARCH 9 : MORNING. 
As thy days, so shall thy strength be. — Deut. xxxiii., 25. 

" It is needless," says the Savior, " that you should be bear- 
ing troubles; that you should be worrying over long plans 
ahead ; that you should be wearing yourselves out with cares ; 
that you should be subjected to all the suffering of possible 
evils in days to come. The true scheme of life, the highest wis- 
dom in living, the hope of immortality, ought to dispossess the 
low and beggarly way in which men live. No man should al- 
low himself to live from day to day under all that accumula- 
tion of care and burden which the future foretokens ; and espe- 
cially all the evils and mischiefs which fear and the morbid con- 
ditions of the mind forebode. No man has a right to import all 
these into a single day. 

Each single and particular day is marked out by the provi- 
dence of God, so to speak, that it may cut off the past and all 
its mischiefs, and that it may intercept and prevent all the pos- 
sible mischiefs of the future. The question is, Have you grace 
given you to-day to lift the burdens of to-day ? Have you grace 
given you to-day to be content with the condition of to-day ? 

I do not mean to be understood as saying that we do not 
need to lay our plans far ahead. For forelooking is not bur- 
densome. But to look forward or back in such a way as to 
bring unhappiness — that is disallowed. You have no right to 
do it. In each particular day you are to concentrate, and bur- 
den yourself with, only the troubles which belong to that day 
— that is, the troubles which spring from the circumstances of 
that day. 

MARCH 9 : EVENING. 
To he spiritually minded is life and peace. — Rom, viii.,6. 
Do you believe in the Holy Ghost? Do you believe that 
God's sun actually comes into contact with the lily, and pours 



MARCH. 



121 



it full, -warms it, and changes it? Do you believe that the 
Holy Ghost shines clown into the souls of men that open them- 
selves to its influence ? I do. I believe it is the intrinsic nature 
of God, shining into the soul that receives it, to bring to it light, 
and warmth, and hope, and cheer, and comfort unspeakable. 

As it is the nature of some things to be bitter and the nature 
of other things to be sweet, so it is the nature of God's spirit to 
bring to souls that peace which is called one of the " fruits of 
the Spirit." As some persons, by their very presence, soothe, 
sweeten, and cheer you, and make you feel better and more 
hopeful, so God, by his indwelling, fills the soul with peace — 
that peace " which -passeth all understanding ;" not the peace 
of indolence, not a supine peace, but that peace which means 
the harmony of every faculty raised to the highest point of 
normal excitement. Perfect harmony — that is the peace which 
God brings to us when he comes into our souls. Oh, how full 
of hope and comfort is this view ! 



MABCH 10: MORNING. 
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the 
law; ye are fallen from grace. — Gal. v., 4. 

While you are in bondage under the law, there is no faith 
in Christ. Christ is left with nothing to do except to help 
you to obey and reward you for obedience. But to you as 
sinners, and because you are sinners — weak, stumbling every 
day, and full of infirmities — he is left without an office. You 
can not, when under the bondage of conscience, come to him, 
because you are so sinful ; but you are perpetually hoping to 
come to him when you are less sinful. You hope to break 
your chain, and then ask him for liberty; to get well, and then 
go to your physician ! 

Conscience is the salvation of morals. It is the every-day 
armor of practical life. But when it is pushed out of its place, 
and made to assume the place and office of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, I am indignant, and say, None but Jesus can heal the 
sinful soul. It is the blood of Christ that cleanses from sin ; it 
is the love of Christ that gives us some peace even before we 



122 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

are cleansed ; and the man who judges himself by the absolute 
law of right places himself beyond the reach of liberty — he is a 
bond slave. 

MARCH 10: EVENING. 

That I might know * * * the fellowship of his sufferings. — Phil, iii., 10. 

I have great sympathy with those that have been active and 
energetic, and that by age or sickness, or for some other reason, 
are laid aside from usefulness. It always seemed very piteous 
to me — that song which has gone out of fashion more than it 
ought to, of the knight who was in captivity in a tower, and 
saw his own brethren sweeping past the castle, not knowing 
that he was there, and shouted out of the window to them, but 
all in vain. He saw them, with pomp, and banners, and glory, 
pass by him and go out of sight ; and there he lay helpless in 
the castle. It epitomizes many a stalwart man that has been 
active and great in his sphere, but that is now removed from 
that sphere, and is obliged to stand still and see the great pro- 
cession of the world thunder past him, he himself neither being 
called for, nor missed, nor heard, nor felt. And there is a strong 
natural temptation, under such circumstances, for a man to give 
way to sourness and complaining, or to say, " I have nothing 
more to do in this world." Nevertheless, if a man maintains 
himself with sweet-mindedness and serenity; if he leans his head 
back on the bosom of God's providence, and says, "If this is the 
service that God wants of me — to be large-minded, rich-thought- 
ed, and pure-hearted in this position, and to be patient, and to 
wait — then this is what I want to be and want to do," he mani- 
fests a higher type of character than he would if he with power 
wrought out great results in things that were easy and natural 
to him. And you may be sure, when God raises up such a 
character, that he also points spectators to it as a witness, and 
that there is some one that sees it or feels it. 

All things, O Lord, I yield 

But one — to work for thee ; 
To that my craving spirit clings — 

The only life for me. 
Master, this sloth for me is death ; 

And yet thou chain'st my hands. 
Leave me not thus to waste my breath ; 
# Loose thou — oh loose my bands ! 



MARCH. 123 



May I not take thy bread of life, 
And give to souls that need ? 

Thou know'st I love both thee and thine- 
Thy lambs may I not feed ? 

' ' Son — hejr of all things — trust ! 

My son, thou'rt wearied — rest ! 
While waiting, grow thou rich in grace." 

Yes, Lord ; thou knowest best. 



MARCH 11: MORNING. 

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment ; and I will 
not blot out Ms name out of the Book of Life,.but I will confess his name be- 
fore my Father and before his angels. — Rev. iii., 5. 

If I were to summon from the abodes of the blessed those 
who, being your witnesses, sympathize with you in your troub- 
les, they would say, " We stood hesitating and doubting, as you 
stand hesitating and doubting, but, inspired by the divine Spir- 
it, we sprang forward to our labor, and overcame all obstacles ; 
and as we, by the grace of God, overcame, so shall you over- 
come if you have faith and patience, hope and trust." There 
is not one evil in life which can stand the aggressive spirit of 
a heart that is touched with divine love. He who calls God 
his father, heaven his home, all pure and noble intelligences his 
companions, this world a wilderness, and himself a pilgrim seek- 
ing his Father's house, can not be stopped by any fear of ship- 
wreck or disaster from prosecuting his journey. Our Father's 
house awaits our coming. Its honors and dear delights are 
ours. And not one thing withstands us that we may not 
overcome. We are surrounded by God's providences, by his 
heavenly angels, by all the saints that have been perfected by 
earthly experience, so that there are more for us than there are 
against us. 

Fret not, poor soul, while doubt and fear 

Disturb thy breast ; 
The pitying angels, who can see 
How vain thy wild regret must be, 

Say, Trust and rest. 

MARCH 11 : EVENING. 
The righteous hath hope in his death. — Prov. xiv., 32. 
Long before winter would let me plant out of doors, I plant- 



124 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISER 

ed under glass, and depended upon artificial heat, and waited 
for the time when I might remove my early plants ; and, as 
soon as I dared, I set them in the open air in some sheltered 
nook where the frost should not touch them. But now, in these 
June days, I have taken them into the broad, exposed garden, 
and put them where they are to stand and blossom, and they 
did not weep when I put them there. 

Now God has raised us under glass, and nurtured lis there, 
that we might bear transplanting into another and better 
sphere ; and when he comes, and takes us, and plants us out in 
his open garden, is that the time for us to cry ? Beloved, ye 
are the sons of God ; and when the bell strikes, and the angel, 
hearing the sweet sound, flies swiftly to call you to your son- 
ship and coronation, is that the time for tears ? Beloved, it 
doth not yet appear what ye are to be ; and yet are ye so pure, 
and noble, and true that men can not bear your going from 
them ? And are you lost because all the fragmentary develop- 
ments of your being are taken into that higher sphere where 
they are more, not less ? 



MARCH 12: MORNING. 

The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy : I am come 
that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. — 
John x., 10. 

Are we set to teach God's truth to the young that it shall 
please them, or shall we take these divinest truths — truths of 
love, of victory, of hope, of faith, of manhood, of immortality 
and glory, of triumph over sorrow, and death, and the grave — 
and so teach them to our children that their prevailing impres- 
sion respecting them is that, next to being damned, it is miser- 
able to be a Christian ? A great many feel that they would 
rather be born again than be lost forever ; but that is all. What 
a testimony that is to our understanding of the spirit of the 
Bible — that singing book ; that healthy book ; that book which 
has not a morbid spot in it from beginning to end ; that book 
which is full of choirs, full of angel Voices, full of inspiration, 
full of nobleness and grandeur all the way through — what a 
testimony it is to our understanding of the spirit of that book 



MARCH. 125 

that we make it a battle-field, whereon we tramp down flowers 
and harvests in our rude controversies sect with sect. There 
is a fountain of healing, they tell me, at Gettysburg. Blood- 
soaked it has been. There is many a Gettysburg where there 
are theological wounds and bitter tears. But there is also the 
healing fountain of the Word of God. And I say that it is a 
correlative duty to please men so as to instruct them, and to in- 
struct men so as to please them, if possible. Not that you are 
always to avoid tasks, and yokes, and crosses ; but the predom- 
inant tendency, the genius of inspiration, should be to make in- 
struction pleasant — to make truth seem as pleasant to men as 
it really is. 

For the love of God is broader 

Than the measures of man's mind, 

And the heart of the Eternal 
Is most wonderfully kind. 

But we make his love too narrow 

By false limits of our own, 
And we magnify his strictness 

With a zeal he will not own. 



MARCH 12 : EVENING, 

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave : for he shall re- 
ceive me. — Psalm xlix.,15. 

I ask no other evidence of immortality than that which I 
have when I see how needful it is that I should be planted 
again, and have an opportunity to try life over under new cir- 
cumstances. Oh ! if this life were all that I could have, I should 
weep, it seems to me, from the present hour to the very end, 
unless I could say, as the ancients did, " Let us eat and drink, 
for to-morrow we die." I should be in a state of wanton, merry 
despair on the one side, or of tearful, sad despair on the other 
side. I must live again. I must make the experiment of life 
once more. I have made poor work here, but I have met with 
just success enough to feel that if I had a better chance I could 
do something. I am like a man that takes the first canvas to 
paint a picture. He does not know what he will do. He lays 
in forms in all sorts of ways without coming to any satisfactory 
result. At last he sai^s, " I can not make any thing of that pic- 
ture ; but J have a conception. Bring me a fresh canvas, and 



126 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

I will try again, when I think I shall have better success." I 
have long been trying to paint a true life, and have only par- 
tially succeeded ; but if God Almighty will give me another 
canvas, I think I can paint better. And he will. He that 
brought forth from the dead our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 
will brinsr me forth. 



MARCH 13 : MORNING. 
Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief.— Mark ix., 24. 

It is the right of those who are not possessed of strong feel- 
ings of any kind to pray with simplicity, and without any such 
strength of expression as others have. Prayer, being the offer- 
ing of your thoughts and feelings to God, should always have 
a relation to the nature that employs it. There is such a thing 
as growth in prayer. There is a provision in prayer of instruc- 
tion from good to better. But the first quality of Christian 
liberty is the right of every man to lisp if he can not speak ; to 
speak in broken numbers if he is not fluent ; to pray in small 
circuits if he can not pray in large. There is no set form of 
Christian experience in prayer. One is to bring to his Father 
just that mind that has been given to him. And as some re- 
ceive ten, and others only two talents, each may bring accord- 
ing to what he hath, and not according to what he hath not. 

True prayer is communion ; it is converse ; it is a sacred in- 
tercourse between the heart of God and our hearts. And if we 
attempt to pray other men's prayers, unless they happen to fit 
our case, we shall be as bad off as David was in Saul's armor. 
He could not wear it. His sling was better for him than the 
king's whole armor. 

I can not pray ; yet, Lord, thou know'st 

The pain it is to me, 
To have my vainly struggling thoughts 

Thus torn away from thee. 

Yet thou art oft most present, Lord 

In weak, distracted prayer ; 
A sinner out of heart with self 

Most often finds thee there. 
Prayer was not meant for luxury 

Of selfish pastime sweet ; ^ 
It is the prostrate creature's prace 

At his Creator's feet. 



MARCH. J27 



MARCH IB: EVENING. 

For th9 Lord is good ; his mercy is everlasting ; and Ms truth endureth to 
all generations. — Psalm c, 5. 

God's mercies are fresh with everlasting youth. The stars 
never wear out : they are just as good to-day as when Abraham 
saw them directing the Oriental people by night. The sun is 
not weary from the number of years : there are no wrinkles on 
its brow. The urns of God are replenished by outpouring, and 
they increase their fullness by that which they yield. And 
God's promises are of the nature of his laws. The heaven and 
earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of God's word 
shall change or pass away. For thousands of years men have 
found his promises to be staffs on their journey; armor for 
defense; sword and spear for battle. Not one promise has 
ever been unfulfilled. Though these promises of God are al- 
most without number, prodigal, luxuriant, they have never 
been broken, and the word of the Lord standeth sure to this 
hour. There is not a witness in God's universe to-day that can 
testify that he has leaned on a promise of God, and that God 
forgot to be gracious to him. Of all the martyrs, of all the 
heroes, of all the men that have suffered for moral principle in 
this world, not one shall ever be found that can stand before 
God and say, "Thou didst forget." There is no such faithful- 
ness, there is no such promptness, there is no such punctuality 
any where else as there is in the bosom of the Almighty. 



MARCH 14 : MORNING. 

Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood * * * 
to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. — Rev. L, 5, 6. 

Oue conception of Christ is such that we are perpetually in 
trepidation before him. We are afraid to go to him. We are 
afraid to confess our sins to him. We are afraid to trust his 
grace again. We think the stores of his patience are exhaust- 
ed. We have not known, we have not considered the infinity 
that there is in love. If love in us is so strong, if love in us is 



128 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

so full of self-denial, and patience, and gentleness ; if love in us 
carries summer through our winter, and the tropics through 
our whole life, is our name higher in that regard than the name 
of Christ ? Have you pity ? Find me pity that stands out 
among men remarkable, and I will place by the side of it the 
pity of Christ, and say, " Here is a name which is above every 
name in that." Show me mercy — that mercy which suffers 
rather than make suffering — and over against the most saintly 
and notable instance that you can find, I will lift up a name 
that is above every other name in that. Show me a love that 
longs to die rather than that another should die — yea, that is 
willing to live through tribulation and sorrow to do good to 
those that are beloved — and over against this rare and won- 
drous love I will lift up a name of love that is above every 
name — the name of Jesus, that rebukes our want of faith, and 
our want of an elevated conception in fashioning him to our- 
selves. 



MARCH 14: EVENING. 

Examine yourselves, whether ye he in the faith ; prove your own selves. 
Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye he 
reprobates ?— 2 Cor. xiii., 5. 

Prayer and the reading of the "Word of God are indispensa- 
ble prerequisites of self-examination. Not because there is any 
charm about prayer, not because any mysterious influence steals 
out from this book, but because they bring men into commerce 
with those things which are necessary as the foundation on 
which to establish the knowledge of ourselves. 

Another thing that is very important is the resolution that 
you will call things which you detect in yourself by their true 
English names. If a man tells that which is contrary to the 
truth, let him not say, " I equivocate :" let him say, " I lie.'''' If 
a man has departed from rectitude in his dealings with another, 
let him not say, " I took advantage," which is a roundabout, 
long sentence : let him say, " I cheated." That is a very direct 
word. It springs straight to the conscience, as the arrow flies 
whizzing from the bow. 

Again, it seems to me that we should not come with vain 



MARCH. 129 

self-confidence to this work of searching ourselves. We ought 
to feel that it is a most deceitful and difficult work. When we 
enter upon it, it is as if we were going upon quicksands, and 
we are liable to be swallowed up in vanity and ignorance. Let 
us evermore have a heart that lifts itself up before God, and 
says, as the ancient servant said, " Search thou me." In other 
words, come to a deliberate judgment of your own case, and 
then lift it up into God's presence, and say, " Lord, I have said 
this of myself." 

And if you think this is a process that is hard, that is awful 
to go through with in this life, what will it be in the day of 
judgment, when the secrets of every heart shall be revealed 
and proclaimed abroad — when the light of God's clear-seeing 
eye shall illumine every part of your life, and you shall see 
yourself as you are ? It is better to know now, and to correct, 
than to know then with hopeless condemnation. 

May God help us all to desire to know ourselves, and then 
to examine and try our own hearts and our own lives. 



MARCH 15: MORNING. 
The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. — Luke xvii. , 20. 

God is building up a kingdom that is invisible ; a kingdom 
that can not be discerned by the outward man ; a spiritual king- 
dom of holy thoughts, of pure feelings, of faith, of hope, of right- 
eousness. This kingdom advances little by little, some here and 
some there, all over the world. It is carried forward by a mil- 
lion different causes. God administers it himself, and he means 
that it shall be perfected. He is determined that the whole 
world shall be filled with his glory. This kingdom progresses 
very slowly. It meets with great opposition — so great that 
sometimes you can not tell whether it is going backward or 
forward. But God, who is building this great kingdom, sees 
that though, on account of its magnitude, it is advancing slow- 
ly, yet it is advancing surely. You can not build a great house 
so quickly as you can a small one, nor a city as quickly as you 
can a house. If God was going to build his kingdom in one 
family, he might do it quickly ; but as he is to do it in all the 

I 



130 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

families of every country, the work is so vast that it can not be 
done in a day, nor in a year, nor in rolling ages. It takes time 
to build things that are to be so well built and so glorious as 
God's kingdom will be when it is completed. 



MARCH 15 : EVENING. 
He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. — 2 Cor. ix. , 6. 

We lay up treasure in heaven in the case of every one whom 
we send thither by our labors of love and Christian fidelity. A 
word of yours fitly spoken may have saved some soul. Tour 
fidelity may have brought scores out of ignorance, and you will 
not fail to reap your reward. You may sow seed in the Sab- 
bath-school, and your class may be scattered, and you may 
never hear their names again in this world, and, coming to old 
age yourself, and dying, they may be the very ones that shall 
greet you, and give you a choral entrance into the heavenly 
city. Of all the treasures laid up in heaven, none, perhaps, 
will fill us with more wondrous surprise than those treasures 
of consciences purified, hearts lifted up, and souls redeemed by 
our instrumentality. 



MARCH 16 : MORNING. 
What doth hinder me to be baptized 1 — Acts viii., 36. 

My watch stops. Something is broken in it. I take it to 
the watch-maker, and he puts in a new mainspring. I do not 
know any thing about it except that he does it. And Avhen it 
is repaired he lays it aside. Presently I go for my watch, and 
ask him if it is done. " Oh yes !" he says, " but I do not know 
as it is going ;" and he takes it, and, finding that it does not 
go, he winds it up. And then it does not go, perhaps ; but he 
gives it a little turning shake, and it commences ticking and 
keeping time. 

I know many persons who have a mainspring in them, and 
have been wound up, for that matter, but who have not been 
shaken yet ! And there they are. If somebody would only 
take them up, and whirl them round a few times, and say to 



MARCH. 131 

them, " You are Christians ; tick ! tick /" they would commence 
keeping time, and go on keeping time. I have known persons 
that spent months and months not only making no progress, 
but losing ground, just for want of knowledge of the fact that 
the office of the Lord Jesus Christ was to take people in order 
that they might be good ; and that it was his nature, after he 
had taken them, to be patient with them, and help them, and 
encourage them, and bring all the power of his being to bear 
upon them to save them. 

♦ 
MARCH IQ: EVENING. 

I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because' thon hast hid 
these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 
—Matt, xi., 25. 

What are those things that men can not find out by their 
wisdom or their prudence, but that the simplicity of the child 
steers it into ? What is it that men find only when they come 
to that condition in which they are obliged to act with the 
simple trust of a little child ? " Come unto me, all ye that la- 
bor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

Oh, it is God and rest in the soul. The whole world is on a 
race, and if you ask them, " What are you after ?" they will tell 
you, " We are after satisfaction — soul-rest." Now watch them, 
and you will find that the strong ones and the wise ones are 
lagging in the rear, and that the weak ones, the little ones, and 
the ignorant ones — the children — are leading off the race. And 
when it comes to rest in the • soul, babes find it quicker than 
their fathers. 



MARCH 17 : MORNING. 

Thy testimonies are very sure ; holiness becometh thine house, Lord, for- 
ever. — Psa. xciii., 5. 

The promises of God's Word are often powerless because 
we are afraid to venture upon using them. There is many a 
man that would be afraid to trust himself upon a single plank 
stretched across a deep chasm, though others had walked over 



132 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

on it often without accident. There is many a promise of God 
that is strong- enough to carry men across the abyss of this life, 
but they do not dare to try it. Many, like Peter, venture from 
the ship to walk to Christ, but give way to fear the moment 
their feet touch the water ; and many do not dare even to leave 
the ship. Many men are so timid that, if they chanced to be 
on a wrecked vessel, where others are escaping to the shore by 
a line, though they saw one after another saved, they would 
stand shivering, and would not dare to attempt to follow for 
fear of the waves. In an emergency, the promises of God are 
to many men what weapons of defense are to a man who does 
not know how to use them when he finds that he must fight for 
his life. There is a sword, with which he might protect him- 
self, but he says, " How shall I wield it ?" There are many im- 
plements that he might employ, but he says, " My hand is un- 
skilled in the use of them." There are many promises from 
which we might derive much benefit, but which do us no good 
because we are afraid to rely upon them. 

MABGHYl: EVENING. 

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. — Col. iii., 18, 19. 

Are you living with each other, husbands and wives, in the 
truest spirit of love, and in the largest sense of wedding ? Are 
you one ? or are you forever and for evermore two ? Are you 
living to help each other or to annoy each other? Are you 
living in the true excusatory spirit which always accompanies 
real conjugal love ? Do you look upon each other, with all 
your faults and failings, as the heirs of God? In your hearts, 
made luminous by faith, do you see heaven blossoming in the 
face of your companions, and behold that which is to be, but 
which has not yet been disclosed from the rubbish of imperfect 
human experience? Do you find yourselves moved to patience, 
to gentleness, and to holy forbearance? Are you every day 
twining around each other like two honeysuckles? Do the 
blossoms of your love send fragrance through all the dwelling, 
and through every wedded day ? Is there nothing to be done 
by you ? Is there no change to be made in your life ? 



MAUVii. J33 

"We talk about revivals in the Church. Oh for a revival 
that shall make husbands and wives love each other, or that 
shall make those that do love each other more tolerant and pa- 
tient toward one another! Oh for a revival that shall lead 
husband and wife to take hold of hands for their children's 
sake, and say, " Beloved, let us sanctify ourselves." 

Oh happy house ! where man and wife in heart, 

In faith, and hope are one, 
That neither life nor death can ever part 

The holy union here begun ; 
Where both are sharing one salvation, 

And live before thee, Lord, always, 
In gladness or in tribulation, 

In happy or in evil days. 



MARCH 18 : MORNING. 
That ye may grow thereby. — 1 Peter ii., 2. 

Woe to that man who finds the brightest experiences of his 
Christian life in the very beginning of it ! for, although there 
are joys that will be fondly remembered forever, there ought 
to be fruits of substantial victories in later life that shall quite 
eclipse in depth and power any early experiences. Are you 
living so that neither sickness nor health, neither adversity nor 
prosperity, can reach up to touch your settled peace ? Is your 
life hid with Christ in God? And are you growing in these 
directions ? If not, what is the matter ? Is it some secret sin ? 
Is it some bitterness — some revenge — some cherished selfish- 
ness — some neglect ? Are you living in the full light of God's 
countenance, and in the enjoyment of perfect peace in Jesus 
Christ ? If not, why should the children of the King go mourn- 
ing all the day ? Is it not time to examine and ascertain why ? 
For the time is drawing near in which the greatness of the 
way will have been passed, and all our battles will have been 
fought, and we shall approach the celestial city, and him who 
dwells therein ; and then, in that hour of royal meeting, to 
have been in conflict, and to have gained victories through suf- 
fering, will be more to us than to have empires, or treasures un- 
countable in our hand. Remember him who bought you with 
his own blood. Remember him who waits for you in heaven. 



134 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Think of those who have gone before and are victorious to-day, 
and lift up holy hands of fresh consecration. Begin again, and 
fight boldly unto the end of life. 



MAHCH18: EVENING. 

I am the door : by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go 
in and out, and find pasture. — John x., 9. 

All day long the father strives in the office, in the store, in 
the shop, in the street, along the wharves, wherever his labor 
calls him ; and the whole day has been full of care and wran- 
gling. The head is hot, and the hand is weary, and the pulse 
is feverish ; and as the day draws on, the busy man prepares at 
last for home. 

If he is wise, he will leave his care behind him. Let the dead 
bury their dfcad. Leave your calculations at the desk. Leave 
your anxieties in your store. Never take them into the street, 
nor bring them home. 

The man draws near his dwelling. The door opens to his 
touch. The children hear it. The elder ones run. The young 
prattler, mother-borne, gets there first — quicker than the nim- 
blest. Now, how his heart rejoices ! He looks around with a 
sense of grateful rest, and thanks God that the sound of that 
shutting door was the last echo of the thunder of care and 
trouble. That is outside, and he is at home with her that he 
loves best, and with those that are dearest to him. That door 
opened to let him in to love, and peace, and joy ; it shut to 
keep out the turbulence of the quarrelsome world and the in- 
fluence of grinding business. 

My dear friends, there is a friendship in the Lord Jesus Christ 
which may be to us what the door of the household is to the 
most care-bestridden and bested of men. What the home, with 
all its sweet affection, is to the troubled heart, that the Savior 
is to those who know how to make use of him — not the Savior 
didactically taught or controversially preached, but the Savior 
discerned by a living and personal faith. There is such inter- 
course and welcome behind him as there is behind the shutting 
door. There is that in him which shall make every man, in the 
midst of the most tried and bestormed life, rest upon his bosom. 



MAMUR. 135 

Oh ! if men could but find the Door ; if they could hut know 
what peace there is in Christ Jesus for them, I am sure they 
would not go so friendless, and harassed, and distressed. 

In thee my heart, Jesus ! finds repose ; 

Thou bringest rest to all that weary are. 
Until that Dayspring from on high arose, 
I wandered through a night without a star ; 
My feet had gone astray 
Upon a lonely way : 
Each guide I followed failed me in my need, 
Each staff I leaned on proved a broken reed. 



MARCH 19 : MORNING. 

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of 
thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided. — Luke 
xii., 20. 

I see men that attract to themselves the eyes of all the 
crowd. They have gathered around themselves that which 
seems to consummate their felicity upon earth. They are at 
the climax of exhilaration and enjoyment. " Oh happy man !" 
men cry out. No returning echo comes, "Happy man;" but 
muffled, almost silent, comes back from the heavens, " Fool ! 
fool !" 

Mother, if that child in thine arms is God's child, and if 
through that child, as through a lens, thou art looking at im- 
mortality and glory, blessed be thou of women ; but if this 
child of thine is only a mortal child, an idol indeed, and in it 
thou seest only this world — oh fool ! 

Young man, with health and strength, with ambition and op- 
portunity, if these take hold upon glory and immortality, oh, 
wise art thou ; but if they stop this side of that, oh, fool art 
thou. It is a sad thing to have a price put into a man's hands 
to get wisdom, and to squander it. Oh, it is a sad thing to be 
built for God, and end only with the dust which shall cover 
you. It is a sad thing for one to be brought up under the 
sound of the Gospel ; to know his own necessities ; to hear the 
truth of God sounding in his conscience ; to be touched in his 
heart again and again — it is a sad thing for a man to see all 
the truth that gleams through the horizon of the Gospel, and, 



136 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

after all, to die as the fool dieth. " So is every one that layeth 

up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." 

Made for thyself, God ! 
Made for thy love, thy service, thy delight ; 
Made to show forth thy wisdom, grace, and might ; 
Made for thy praise, whom veiled archangels laud. 
Oh, strange and glorious thought, that we may be 
A joy to thee ! 

Yet the heart turns away 
From this grand destiny of bliss, and deems 
'Twas made for its poor self, for passing dreams ; 
Chasing illusions, melting day by day, 
Till for ourselves we read on this world's best, 
" This is not our rest." 



MARCH 19 : EVENING-. 
The Lord of peace himself give you peace.— 2 Thess. iii., 1G. 

We are born into God's kingdom little children. We have 
to go through a process of development and education in relig- 
ious things, as little children in this natural life are obliged to 
go through successive stages of education and development. 

The j>eace which comes from Christian life does not come 
with the alphabet. That is not the point at which to look for 
it. It belongs to Christian experience, but it belongs to a later 
stage. It is one of the signs of ripeness, but not of blossoming. 
That peace which passes all understanding is the highest and 
the most secret stage of experience. Once reached, and the 
soul is in the land of Beulah ; and from the delectable moun- 
tain henceforth it will look over upon the celestial city ; and 
at the hush of evening it will hear, or will think it hears, those 
voices of the blest which rise in endless warbles over the city 
of God, and of which, I sometimes think, all sweet earthly 
sounds are only the echoes, or, as it were, wandering and lost 
sounds which have dropped down through the tumult of this 
lower sphere, confusedly, and yet have not quite lost their 
sweetness. 



MARCH 20 : MORNING. 
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. 
-Isaiah xlii., 3. 

How tenderly God speaks when he describes the way in 



MAE cm 



137 



which he deals with those who come to him. " The bruised 
reed I will not break." 

Did you ever see reeds or canes growing, that shoot up 
twenty or thirty feet, and are not thicker than your finger in 
the whole growth ? Even if they are strong and whole, they 
can not stand unless they are in some way supported by their 
fellows. But suppose the field is cut through, and, as the reaper 
passes, he strikes one that is left upon its edge, and its stem is 
shivered. There it stands, tall and tremulous, but now wound- 
ed, so that a breath will cause it to fall to the ground. God 
says, I will deal so gently with you that the bruised reed shall 
not break, that such tremulous weakness shall not fall. 

"The smoking flax I will not quench." Did you ever watch 
the flame when it was first applied to the wick, and you could 
scarcely tell whether you were deceived by your eye, or there 
was really a light therd, and the slightest stirring, the breath 
that you breathed, would blow it out ? It is very hard to make 
a lamp begin to burn. Now, says God, I will deal with those 
who come to me for help' with such gentleness that the smoking 
flax shall not be quenched. If your soul to-day has one aspira- 
tion, if there is one spark of that glorious flame leaping up to- 
ward God, there is the promise of that blessed Spirit that shall 
take that heart of yours, like a lamp just lit, and God will carry 
it so carefully and gently that it shall not go out until the 
whole is enkindled with light. 

How soft the words my Savior speaks ! 

How kind the promises he makes ! 

A bruised reed he never breaks, 
Nor will he quench the smoking flax. 

MARCH 20: EVENING. 
Thou, God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor.— Psalm lxviii., 10. 

See to it that the less your earthly sky seems clear and 
bright, the* nearer and the surer is your access to the heavenly 
land. Have a firm hold upon God. Seek his kingdom and its 
righteousness. 

If you are distressed about your worldly estate, do not give 
up courage, though no prospect opens to-morrow, or next day, 
or next week. If the Lord wants you to be poor, very poor, 



138 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

are you willing to be poor ? If he can glorify himself in your 
poverty, are you willing ? If you say to me, "It is very hard," 
I admit it. I sympathize with any man who has to go through 
that struggle. But if you say, " It is not possible," I deny it. 
It is possible. A thousand have vanquished the world in this 
respect, and a thousand more will do it. And if a man is called 
to suifer anxiety about his worldly estate, let him remember 
that here is a place where he can, by calm, sweet confidence 
and trust in God, bear a testimony to the power of divine 
grace that not a hundred sermons could make so fruitful in 
good upon the minds of those that look on. 



MARCH 21 : MORNING. 

Behold the fig-tree, and all the trees ; when they now shoot forth, ye see and 
know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, 
when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is 
nigh at hand. — Luke xxi., 29-31. 

Since the sun has begun to come back, who can stop the 
growing day? Who now can make the hours dark that the 
sun is making light ? It lingers longer in the west, and comes 
up earlier in the east, and the day is growing. Let the north 
blow out its puffs of ice as much as it will, let the snow come 
as much as it will, they can not keep the summer off. It is 
coming. It is advancing through the air. I hear the birds 
coming. I smell the flowers, blooming. From far southern 
latitudes the sun is advancing. The summer will be here be- 
fore long. 

And so, he that is the Sun of Righteousness is bringing in 
the summer-day of redemption ; and all men's belief, and wick- 
edness, and foaming passions may set themselves against it, but 
it comes through the air. It comes through the ages. It 
comes by the mighty power of the omnipotent God. And no 
man shall stop it. The day will yet come when it shall be tri- 
umphant over all. Woe be to those that are not on the Lord's 
side when he comes in the day of his power to execute final 
justice and judgment. 






'139 



MARCH 21: EVENING. 

So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are com- 
manded you, say, We are unprofitable servants : we have done that which was 
our duty to do." — Luke xvii., 10. 

Let us avoid conceit, even though we may have done a gi-eat 
deal. I do not believe any body with a generous nature ever 
did any good, that the first effect on himself was not to make 
him feel, " How little I have done, and how poor is what I do!" 

When I think of what a work it is to build up a human soul, 
and what an opportunity God's kind grac^has given me for 
doing it ; when I think what a God I have had, and what a Sav- 
ior I have had, and what advantages have been vouchsafed to 
me, I feel ashamed and humbled to think that I have done so 
little in the Lord's vineyard, and have done it so poorly. My 
opportunities have been vast, and my performances, compared 
with what I should have done, have been very meagre and 
poor. And I think mine is not a singular experience. Do you 
not feel the same way ? Do you ever, in the spirit of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, do any thing that you do not feel, " It is not as 
good as I wish it were ?" 



MARCH 22: MORNING. 

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : 
and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; and to 
our God, for he will abundantly pardon. — Isa. lv. , 7. 

What does God mean when he says he will "abundantly 
pardon ?" Remember that, it is God who speaks, infinite in 
power, infinite in mercy, infinite in love, infinite in empire and 
in being. When God says that if a man will come back, and 
forsake his evil thoughts and his wicked ways, he will forgive 
him, and " abundantly" have mercy on him, what does he mean? 
What is God's abundance? Who can tell what that clearance, 
that utter wiping out of sin is, which God promises ? 

There is no such lover as God. There is no such magnanim- 
ity as there is in God's nature. There is no such friend as 
God. There is no such harbor or refuge as his bosom. If you 



140 ' MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

have done wrong, go to your earthly friend if yon will, hut go 
to God by all means. He is loving, he is gentle, he is full of 
pity. " Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame ; he remeniber- 
eth that we are but dust." 



MARCH 22: EVENING. 
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. — Gal. v., 25. 

In the country I can take a mirror, and sit in the house, and 
hold it in such a position as to bring in the adjacent trees : not 
the trees, but an image of them, which is like the trees to me. 

If you are not yourself Christ, your mind maybe a mirror by 
which his image shall be reflected on the minds of the children 
that you teach, so as to give them a better conception of him 
than they could get from the Bible itself. For, if you are Chris- 
tians, you are epistles of God ; you are letters in which men 
read his power, and wisdom, and grace. 

For your own children's sake, parents; for your scholars' 
sake, teachers in the Sabbath-school, in the Bible-class, and in 
the week-day school ; for the sake of those with whom you are 
brought in contact amid the affairs of life, men of business, be- 
come like Christ in your disposition and in your life. Let no 
man in your presence go down from darkness to death without 
having the Savior not only taught to him in words, but imaged 
before him in conduct. So live, and men shall see your good 
works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven. 

Let me wear the white robes here, 
Even on earth, my Father dear ; 
Holding fast thy hand, and so 
Through the world unspotted go. 

Perfume every fold with love, 
Hinting heaven where'er I rove, 
As an Indian vessel's sails 
Whisper of her costly bales. 

Thus appareled, I shall be 

As a signal set for thee, 

That the wretched, poor, and weak 

May the same fair garments seek. 



MARCH. 



MARCH 23: MORNING. 



141 



For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the right- 
eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the king- 
dom of heaven. — Matt, v., 20. 

Ma:ny persons confound the means with, the end in moral 
things, who never do so in ordinary things. They have great 
scrupulosity of conscience about the use of means ; but the ab- 
sence of higher qualities of manliness, the violation of them, 
the total sacrifice of them — these things give them little pain. 
About all the things that relate to religion as educating means 
they are very scrupulous ; but when it comes to those quali- 
ties for which these are merely the schoolmasters — unmistaka- 
ble truth, transparent sincerity, faith in God, courage, and sim- 
plicity, and unselfishness, and meekness — when it comes to 
these, they have no scruples*- The idea of striking the Bible 
gives them great horror, but the idea of striking a man, that is 
God's temple, has little or no effect upon them. And yet, when 
the round earth shall burn, the Bibles will burn too. But when 
the round earth shall burn, not one living soul will burn. All 
the wide world is but the tool of God for the development of 
the one fruit, man. Man is the fruit which God means by the 
husbandry of time — by all the institutions of the world. And 
what kind of piety is that which stickles for a Sunday, and 
does not care for a generation or a race ? What kind of piety 
is that which stands tremulou* with superstitious fear for Church 
regulations, for religious ceremonies, and for days, but without 
concern lets world-currents flow deep as the currents of the 
Dead Sea over generations and races ? 



MARCH 23 : EVENING. 

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.— 
LuJce xxiii., 34. 

While yet we were enemies, Christ died for us. Did you 
ever attempt to imagine what must have been the state of 
mind that Christ was in when he looked upon those who were 
not repentant, who were his enemies still, and who were so va- 



142 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

grant as to reject his life-long services, as to cause his passion, 
and as to work out his death ? Did you ever attempt to imag- 
ine what must have been that state of mind by which, after hav- 
ing toiled for them, and borne with them, and taught them, he 
could, in the act of dying, pray for them, saying, " They know 
not what they do ?" Do you get any idea of what the divine 
feeling is toward a wicked, hating, and hateful being, which 
manifests itself in dying for him as the means of his restoration ? 
If I say that I will forgive a man when he repents, and not be- 
fore, I do not know what to do with the example of Christ. He 
did not wait till I repented. He did not wait till I was good. 
I should not have been good had it not been for his forerunning 
grace. It was Christ that waked me up and made me sensitive 
to that which was wrong. It was Christ's influence on my 
mind that brought my conscience to feel how hateful my life 
was toward him. And when I began to feel that I had passed 
from death to life, I was distinctly conscious that I came to it 
by the forerunning grace of the Lord God. He saved me while 
I was an enemy, proud, selfish, and unlovely; and that always 
comes back to me as a rule of duty. 



MARCH U: MORNING. 

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these 
things shall be added unto you. — Matt, vi., 33. 

I do not say that discussions oft abstract philosophical ques- 
tions have not certain benefits ; but I do say that, though 
these sharp questions are good to whet a man's faculties, yet, 
if he rests upon the simple faith of love in Christ Jesus — if it is 
merely by the hunger of his soul that he is guided to be made 
whole or better — he can lead a very good Christian life, even 
though his faculties are not whet. It is not necessary that he 
should solve the questions relating to the nature of God or of 
the divine government. He may let them alone. 

The precept is, " Seek first the kingdom of God and its" — 
what did the Savior say ? " Seek first the kingdom of God and 
its" — catechism ? No, that was not it. " Seek first the king- 
dom of God and its" — confession of faith ? No, that was not 



MARCH. 143 

it. " Seek first the kingdom of God and its" — doctrine ? No, 
that was not it. What was it ? " Seek first the kingdom of 
God and its righteousness.' 1 '' Let practice and experience pre- 
cede philosophy. After you have got these, then co-ordinate 
them, and make your own philosophy. First, true life ; after- 
ward the theory of that life. 



MARCH U: EVENING. 

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.— Prov. 
Hi., 17. 

Religion", regarded as a theory of a perfect state, is right in 
pronouncing itself a icay of pleasantness and a path of peace. 
If a man could but walk perfectly in the way of religion, he 
would be perfectly happy. The way is pleasant, and all the 
paths are peace; and yet along that pleasant way there are 
groans and sorrows innumerable; and along that way of peace 
there is struggle, turmoil, combat, and confusion. But the di- 
vine plan and intent, the ultimate state, is a state of supreme 
blessedness. The nature of man is one which, when brought 
fully up to its divine ideal, will produce constant happiness. 

But man is not born into an ideal state — into a perfect state, 
even. On the contrary, he is born farther from his nature than 
any other creature on earth. Nothing is so far from perfection 
when it starts as man. There is nothing so far from the per- 
fection of even his physical powers as man. Born as a babe, 
what is a man that neither sees nor hears ; that distinguishes 
nothing ; that knows nothing ? And yet that child is a son of 
God, and is destined yet, through evolution and education, and 
sanctifying grace or inspiration, to rise and be but little lower 
than the angels. But oh, how long the journey from the cradle 
to the crown. 



MARCH 25 : MORNING. 

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh ahd whither it goeth : so is every one that is 
born of the Spirit.— John iii., 8. 

Come, oh south wind ! bring vapor from the sea and warmth 



144 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

from the equator; bring birds and grass, spring and summer. 
Come, oh breath of heaven ! spread wide abroad over all the 
continent. Come to the great and come to the little ; come to 
the poor and come to the rich ; come to the sick man through 
his lattice ; come to all, bringing — no man can measure what, 
for abundance. No man can tell whence it cometh or whither 
it goeth. It wanders up and down the hills, and through all 
the valleys, and makes itself known from the benefits it brings ; 
yet no man can see the viewless course of the air. So it is 
with the spirit of beneficence — the true Christ-like spirit in the 
human soul. It comes, we know not whence ; it goes, we can 
not tell how or where. It is universal; it is endless; it is 
bountiful as the summer, and blessed as God. 



MARCH 25 : EVENING. 
All things are yours. — 1 Cor. iii., 21. 

If you were to come up and steal some of my flowers next 
summer, I should not miss them. I have so many that you 
might take a wheelbarrow load, and I should have enough the 
next morning. I can conceive, however, that a seamstress, up 
in an attic, might have a little tea-rose, the only thing she had 
which savored of taste ; and I can conceive how desolate she 
might feel if the rats had gnawed it and destroyed it, or if some 
one had stolen it. But you can not trouble me so. You can 
not make me poor by taking my flowers, I have such an abund- 
ance. 

If a man has nothing but what grows in this life, you can 
make him poor and unhappy ; but if a man believes in God, 
and believes in heaven, and believes in the joy that awaits him 
there, how are you going to bankrupt him ? How are you go- 
ing to overthrow so lordly a spirit as his who has heard God 
say, " Thou art my son ?" Son of God — yes, prince ; heir with 
Christ to all things — forever and forever heir. How is any 
sudden trouble to run in upon him ? In the full consciousness 
of his estate ; in the joy and dignity of his relationship, how 
shall any man harm him ? 



MARCH. 



MARCH 26 : MOKNIXG. 



145 



For the love of money is the root of all evil : which while some coveted aft- 
er, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many 
sorrows. — 1 Tim. vi., 10. 

The love of money has corrupted, in its time, every faculty, 
and every relation in which a man stands connected with his 
fellows. It has divided families, it has parted friendships, it 
has corrupted purity. The love of money, often, is stronger 
than the love of kindred. See children utterly rent asunder 
and quarreling over a will ! See how natural affection is ex- 
tinguished ! how it extinguishes natural affections! What 
crimes or vices were ever known that it has not led men to. 
What is there of selfishness, or pride, or vanity, or deceit — what 
is there in wickedness, in meanness, in treachery, that money 
has not been accessory to. 

Not only will they who will he rich sacrifice every thing, but 
they will not hesitate to do every thing that is required — only, 
as men that will be rich require impunity, it must be safe. And 
so comes the long, detestable roll of mining, subterranean con- 
duct; the secrecy of wickedness; collusions, plottings, unwhis- 
pered things, or things only whispered ; that long train of web- 
bing conduct which makes men insincere, pretentious hypo- 
crites, whited sepulchres that are fair without, but that inward- 
ly are full of death and dead men's bones. How many there 
are who have violated every commandment of God, and almost 
every law of men, in their way toward badly-gotten gains, and 
yet who have so far had respect for the opinions of their fel- 
lows, and so far desired to stand well among men, that they 
have concealed it all. And they carry themselves, a swollen, 
bloated mass of iniquity, under fair colors and fair exteriors. 
They that will be rich at any rate anil at all hazards, are the 
ones of whom the apostle speaks when he says that they shall 
" fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
hurtful lusts." 

K 



146 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



MARCH 26 : EVENING. 

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened : not for that 
we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed 
up of life. — 2 Cor. v., 4. 

Life is but a handbreadth. Eacb year is not so mucb as tbe 
bead that tbe beauty wears about her neck. Pearl though it 
be, or iron, it soon passes away. The places that know you 
will soon know you no more forever. The cares that made you 
fret yesterday are already below the horizon. The troubles 
that make you anxious to-day will not be troubles when you 
meet them. But what if they were ? A cloud no bigger than 
a man's hand is swelling and filling the whole heaven. What 
then ? To-day its bolts may smite you ; but to-morrow you will 
be in heaven. Your children have died and gone home ; but 
what of that? Soon you will follow them. Your friends have 
gone on before ; but what of that ? You will soon be with 
them. Your life is full of troubles and mischiefs; but what of 
that? Those mischiefs and troubles are nearly over — nearer 
than you think. The glorious future is almost yours. 

O Grave ! thy hand crowns as no monarch can. Knighted 
are we, not by the touch of the sword of any soldier, or king, 
or prince. Trouble it is that lays its sword on men's shoul- 
ders, and says, " Rise up, Sir Knight !" There are things in this 
life that give men great victories all the way through ; but oh ! 
the victory of one moment in the future is worth more than all 
those earthly victories. One look into heaven pays better than 
the whole experience of a life of joy here. 

O Death ! there are who look to thee 

But as the minister of grace, 
And who thy dark approach can see 

With smiles, for they have won the race. 

There are to w^iom thy call would come, 

As to the exile's weary heart 
Would be the summons to his home — 

That home from which he wept to part. 

The good, the bless'd ! to thee they trust 
To crown them with the immortal wreath ; 

And fearless of the dreams of dust, 

As conquerors welcome thee, Death ! 



MARCH. 



147 



MARCH 27 : MORNING. 

For even hereunto were ye called : because Christ also suffered for us, leav- 
ing us an example, that ye should follow his steps.— 1 Peter ii., 21. 

Oftentimes a man must follow the word of truth when it 
seems as though it would lead him into destruction. Often 
Christ comes walking to the disciples on the stormy sea and 
in the night, and it is necessary that there should beg'some 
power of faith, some cogent influence, that shall make a Chris- 
tian man willing to follow rectitude, duty, honor, truth, no mat- 
ter where they seem to lead. And therefore it is that God has 
put all the bows, all the coruscations of his word, around about 
the issues and ends of essential truth, honor, duty, and rectitude, 
and that he says to us, "If you would save your life, lose it ; do 
not be afraid." You are oftentimes brought into trials when it 
seems as though every thing would be wrecked, and the world 
says, "Prudence ;" Experience says, "Drawback;" Policy says, 
" Change a little ;" and Expediency says, " Commute, compro- 
mise." But the Word of God, that stands sure and steadfast, 
and is yea and amen, says, "He that will lose his life for a right 
principle shall save it." And in the 6nd, when you come to 
count the wrecks along the shore, you will find that those men 
who would save their lives by losing their principles are the 
men that have lost their lives ; while those men who brave the 
storm — those men who followed the superior light that shone in 
their hearts — those men who said, " Come what will, there is but 
one way for me, and that is the way that God has marked out" 
— are the men that have saved themselves. 



MARCH 27: EVENING. 

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest.— Matt, xi.,28. 

Men look upon repentance and humiliation before God very 
much as they do upon a voyage from the tropics to the North 
Pole. At every league, as they advance toward the Arctic re- 
gion, they leave more and more behind them verdure, and fruit, 
and warmth, and civilization, and find themselves more and more 



148 MORNING AND EVENING EXEECISES. 

in the midst of sterility, barrenness, ice, and barbarism. So men 
repent toward the frigid zones. They think that to go toward 
God is dreary and desolate. It is not. The sinner lives in ice ; 
but if by any means he becomes fired with a conception of a 
better clime, and takes ship and sails toward the torrid zone, 
at every league he is surprised by the new forms of vegetation 
which surround him. And with what satisfaction does he com- 
pare the delightful home that he has found with the miserable 
one th^it he has left behind. 

Consider what is the thought of divine parentage ; consider 
what are all the ways by which God has sought to impress 
upon the human race the fullness of his love. What figure is 
there that bears the conception of a power, an honor, an ease, a 
glory, an achievement, a victory, which God has not taken and 
set in the sanctuary, to light up in man's mind the divinity of 
that love which he manifested by the gift of his own beloved 
Son — a love which is more than motherhood, or fatherhood, or 
brotherhood, or sisterhood, or friendship, or love of lovers. Sit- 
ting central in the immensity of that love, he says, "Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest." It is the invitation of infinite power to infinite weak- 
ness, of infinite purity to infinite sinfulness, of infinite riches to 
utter and abject poverty. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thy- 
self; but in me is thine help." 



MARCH 28: MORNING. 

I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.— Philip- 
pians iv.,11. 

What man did you ever see that could stand up and say, 
" I have learned, in whatever state I am, and in all places, to 
be content ? Put me where you please, and I will make it 
paradise. Give me my children, and I am happy. Take them 
all away, and I have that still which will make me happy. 
Give me friends, and I am happy. Nothing is so dear to me 
as to be loved, and know that men approve what I am doing 
and what I am saying. But take them all away, and leave me 
the consciousness that I am right with God, and that I am right 



MARCH. 149 

on all the great fundamental truths, and I am happy. Give me 
the multitude or give me the wilderness, I have one experience 
for the one, and I have another for the other ; and in both places 
I have learned to control myself, and I am perfectly happy. Oh ! 
give me the abounding experience which belongs to royalty and 
the realm of the heart in its best estate. Let all heaven seem 
to be in perspective in the experiences of true loving upon earth, 
and of course I could be content in that. Take them all away, 
and let me feel that the deepest feelings of my life have never 
been touched ; let me feel that the depths have been unsounded 
in me, and I can be contented yet." 

Can you say that ? Did you ever know any body that could ? 
I should like to have known one man that could ; and that man's 
name was Paul. It was easy and familiar with him. 

MARCHES: EVENING. 

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he 
receiveth. — Heb. xii., 6. . 

God both chastens and scourges men, and all because he 
loves them. Wonderful love that is, and yet it is just your 
love. You have not a child whose body is worth more to you 
than his mind. No child of yours ever told a lie under circum- 
stances of great baseness — that was bad in itself, and for a pur- 
pose that was worse than the lie — no child of yours ever did 
that when you did not feel rising against him an utter indigna- 
tion, not because you hated the child, but because you loved 
him. All your identification with the child plead for punish- 
ment. You said, "It is my child; and he is not worthy of me; 
and he shall be worthy of me." And you chastised him, not 
once, but repeatedly. Oh, how heartily does a man lay on 
the strokes who loves his child, and wants him to be noble, 
pure, manly, and fit to wear a crown, though he may never 
touch it till he gets to heaven. And Christ says that his sym- 
pathy with us is not the sympathy of an effervescent feeling, 
merely going with us when we have a momentary joy or a mo- 
mentary throb of pain. He sympathizes with the whole of our 
being, and means that his whole administration, and the admin- 
istration of our sorrows as well, shall make our manhood larger. 



150 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



MARCH M: MORNING. 

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men. — 
Col. iii., 23. 

Be obedient and faithful ; and, as Christ took upon him the 
form of a man, though he was mighty God, and humbled him- 
self, and became obedient unto death — the worst kind of death 
that was conceivable among men— so, if you are Christ's, and 
are put in situations in life where your duty requires you to 
humble yourself, and you rejoice in such opportunities to serve 
your Lord and Master, there is the secret offering that you bring 
to him. 

If, child, you have parents who should have been your ex- 
emplars, but who have misled you step by step, honor them. 
For Christ's sake honor them, though it may not be possible 
for you to honor them for their own sake. If, scholar, you are 
in a class, and under teachers, and in circumstances such that 
you are continually vexed and tried, be a Christian in all sweet- 
ness, and faithfulness, and fidelity, for Christ's sake. Be sweet 
tempered and faithful, for Christ's sake, if for no other reason. 
He will know it and appreciate it. 

To every body who is tempted to go according to the world, 
and not according to grace, there is this motive which never 
fails, that whatever you do for Christ falls into his heart, and is 
reckoned there, and makes him happier, and brings back, as it 
were, the reflection of his thought and feeling, his spirit, in 
greater abundance to you. 



MARCH 29 : EVENING. 
For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for 
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. — Heb. ii., 11. 

I take it that there is no Christian who has not such fluctu- 
ations of experience as lead at times almost to be unwilling to 
lift up his face before Christ. "We go to Christ sometimes with 
the same shamefacedness with which we as children went to 
our parents, when we were conscious that our conduct was such 
as made them ashamed of us. At such times the child can not 



MARCH. 151 

look the parent in the face, and turns its eyes away, and is 
scarlet with blushes. Every Christian has times not only of 
despondency, but of sober and just conviction that he has hum- 
bled himself — not in the noble sense of humility ; that he has 
dishonored himself; and that he has brought scandal or dishon- 
or upon the name of his Master. And in these hours one goes 
to Christ with the feeling that Christ must be ashamed too. 
As long as the spirit of a man accuses itself only of generic 
transgression, so long he can in some way find alleviation. But 
when we have been thrown into the gulf of iniquitous pride ; 
when by vanity we have been snared ;> when by the feelings we 
have been led on from wickedness to wickedness; when we 
have been in the exercise of the malign passions; when the ex- 
perience is fresh, and conviction comes as by a divine revela- 
tion, and we are pierced with thoughts of our own guiltiness 
before God, then we can scarcely lift up our head before God, 
and are overwhelmed with the thought that Christ must needs 
be ashamed of us. And yet, it is of just such that Christ says 
he is not ashamed. He is not ashamed to call even them 
brethren. 



MARCH 30: MORNING. 
Unto you, therefore, which helieve, he is precious. — 1 Pet. ii., 7. 

Christ is said to be precious to those that "believe" — to 
those, in other words, whose minds have been so opened that 
they can perceive what really is in the Savior. To those who 
have the full vision, and intimate knowledge, and confiding be- 
lief in the qualities and in the conduct of the Savior, he be- 
comes precious. And this is no imagination. For, although 
the conceptions which we may form may prove by-and-by to 
have been in a thousand respects disproportionate and erring, 
there will always be the fact that they erred on the side of de- 
ficiency. 

We can not suppose that we have the truest idea of God — 
certainly not. " Now we see," says the apostle, " through a 
glass darkly ; but then face to face : now I know in part"' — in 
mere fragments, in bits, having, as it were, the ends of knowl- 
edge — " but then shall I know even as also I am known." And 



152 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

all the mistakes that we commit, or are liable to commit, in the 
knowledge of God, as represented to ns in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
are mistakes of undervaluation. He is infinitely more beauti- 
ful than our most extravagant imagination ever paints. He is 
infinitely more tender and more wise than we ever conceived. 
He is transcendently nobler than we ever dreamed, doing things 
with a generosity, with a lordly courtesy, with a supereminent 
delicacy, with a beauty, with a care for us, and with a harmo- 
nizing influence far transcending not only any experience, but 
any poetic imagination which is wrought out from experience, 
and carried much beyond it. To those who believe, to those 
who have had the sacred vision to behold him, Christ is precious. 



MABCHSO: EVENING. 

But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 
— Isa. xlix., 14. 

Oh how many have felt that God had forsaken them. How 
many have mourned and felt that the heavens over them were 
brass, and that the earth was as the ashes of the burnt wilder- 
ness. Now hear the answer : " Can a woman forget her suck- 
ing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of 
her womb ? Yea, they may forget ; yet will I not forget thee. 
Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy 
walls are continually before me." What is it in the journey, 
what is it in the bivouac, what is it on the field where the 
wounded are weltering in their blood, that one last looks upon ? 
There in the hand is the little daguerreotype of the wife and 
children. The last gaze is on that. And the Lord says, " Your 
portrait is graven on my hands. I carry it on my palms, ever 
before me. I never lift up my hands to the stars that I do not 
see it. I never stretch out my hands to fulfill the decrees of 
Omnipotence, that that picture does not fall upon my eyes." 
Think what language this is to come from the lips of the crown- 
ed head of the universe. Think what comfort and cheer there 
is in it. 



MARCH. 153 



MARGE 31 : MORNING. 
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.— Matt, v., 8. 

Blessed are they that need no argument ; and blessed are 
they whose memories take them back to the glowing hours of 
experience, in which they have seen the transfigured Christ ; in 
which to them the heavens have been opened; in which to 
them the angels of God not only have descended upon the lad- 
der, but have brought the divine and sacred presence with 
them. Many a couch of poverty has been more gorgeous than 
a prince's couch ; many a hut and hovel has been scarcely less 
resplendent to the eye of angels than the very battlements of 
heaven. Many that the world has not known; who had no 
tongue to speak, but only a heart to love and to trust — many 
such ones have had the very firmament of God lifted above 
them, all radiant. There is this truth of the Spirit of God that 
works in the heart of men directly and in overpowering meas- 
ure. Blessed be God, it is a living truth, and there are wit- 
nesses of it yet. 

MARCH SI: EVENING. 
For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. — Heh. xiii., 5. 

God is your father and your mother. Do you say, "Nobody 
cares for my soul ?" The outstretched arms of him that suffer- 
ed are about you. There is a Christ who believes in men, 
thinks for men, longs for men, and strives for men. And there 
is no man that has gone so far wrong but that, if he will, he 
may be clean, may be strong, and may be saved. Oh ye wea- 
ry, why are you weary when others rest? Oh ye sick, why 
do you suffer when others are healed ? Oh starving and hun- 
gering, there is bread enough. Oh dying, there is life for 
you. Oh desponding and despairing, look up and rejoice. A 
great light has arisen to those that sit in the region and shadow 
of death. Come to Christ, who loves you, who is drawing you, 
and who has said to each one of you, " I will never leave thee 
nor forsake thee." 



154 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



APRIL 1 : MORNING. 
We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not 
to please ourselves.— .Roth, xv., 1. 

When a man has acquired money and education, he makes 
it his business to render himself happy. He surrounds himself 
with an estate, and fills his mansion, stores it with comforts and 
luxuries, that he may not be mixed up with the noisy affairs of 
life, but get out of the way, and have his nest beyond the reach 
of the storm, and there lie in his little round silky abode, at 
ease with himself. But, says the apostle, ye that are strong — 
ye that are men of genius and might intellectually — you have 
no right to do any such thing. You ought to bear the infirmi- 
ties of the weak. All human trouble ought to roll itself on to 
the broadest shoulders, and not to rest on the weak and feeble 
shoulders. If there is to be any patience, it is to be on the part 
of men that are the best men. If there is to be any forbear- 
ance, it is to be on the part of those men who are the most de- 
serving, and not the least deserving. Rich men are to bear the 
infirmities of the poor. Wise men are to bear the mistakes of 
the ignorant. Strong men are to bear with the feeble. Cul- 
tured people are to bear with the rude and vulgar. If a rough 
and coarse man meets an ecstatically fine man, the man that 
is highest up is to be the servant of the man that is lowest 
down. You say that it is against nature. Very likely, but it is 
not against grace. He that will be first must be the servant. 

Must I my brother keep, 

And share his pains and toil, 
And weep with those that weep, 

And smile with those that smile ; 
And act to each a brother's part, 
And feel his sorrows in my heart ? 

Must I his burden bear 

As though it were my own, 
And do as I would care 

Should to myself be done ; 
And faithful to his interests prove, 
And as myself my neighbor love ? 

Oh, make me as thou art, 

Thy Spirit, Lord, bestow — 
The kind and gentle heart, 

That feels another's woe ; 
That thus I may be like my Head, 
And in my Savior's footsteps tread. 



APRIL. 155 



APBIL 1 : EVENING. 



Wait on the Lord : be of good courage, and lie shall strengthen thine heart : 
wait, I say, on the Lord. — Psalm xxvii. , 14. 

Sometimes I have gone with a check to the hank, and the 
teller has looked at it and at me, and after seeing who I was, 
and that the check was genuine, has said, "What will you take 
it in ?" meaning, " Will you have it in gold, or silver, or bills ? 
And if in bills, of what denomination shall they be ?" Some- 
times, in answering my prayers, God has, as it were, said to me, 
" What will you take it in ? Will you take it in the thing, and 
nothing else, or will you take it in that which the thing was 
expected to give you — namely, such a spiritual insight or joy 
as you could not have from specific answers ?'•' I think some 
men — not all — can rise to a state of mind in which the concep- 
tion of God's entire control of things is such that there is al- 
ways peacefulness in the way in which they speak; not so 
much from a sense of special answers to petitions as from a 
sense that God governs and overrules all things well. 



APBIL 2: MOBNING. 

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty ; only use not liberty for an 
occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. — Gal. v., 13. 

God summons you ; and he summons you, not as a master 
summons his slave, but as a father summons his child. That 
voice which sounded on Calvary, having gone up to heaven, 
comes inflected back in tones of cheer, and love, and hope, and 
gladness, and calls you; and Christ — ever-living, not now on 
earth a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, but in heaven a 
Prince and a Savior — says, "My son, give me thine heart ;" and 
this being given, he says, " Now enter into all the royalty of 
my possession and domain. Thou, as my child, art also heir 
with me to an eternal inheritance. Thou art to be a king and 
a priest before God." 

Yes, when you are called to be a Christian, you are called 
unto liberty. You are not called as convicts to do penal serv- 



156 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

ice in a spiritual penitentiary. You are called, rather, to the 
freedom, the largeness, the sweetness, and the manliness of a 
nobler character than ever dawned on the imagination of hea- 
then poet. To be a true man according to the ideal of the New 
Testament is to have a heart full of faith and confidence in God, 
and to have all that liberty which love begets in a child that 
dares to look his father in the face, and call him by the most 
familiar names. 

He who in Christ believeth 

Is wise, is wise ; 
He who this Christ receiveth 

Alone is wise. 

He who this wisdom winneth 

Is free, is free ; 
He in whose heart it reigneth 

Alone is free. 

He who this freedom graspeth 

Is strong, is strong ; 
He who this freedom claspeth 

Alone is strong. 



APRIL 2: EVENING. 

And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and 
carried up into heaven. — Luke xxiv., 51. 

When we are almost worn out and discouraged, there some- 
times comes a glancing thought of Christ's patience with us 
and of his sympathy for us. "We are not thinking whether he 
is or is not divine. All we have is a consciousness that there 
is the ideal of Christ brought near to us, bearing us up, and 
lending us his strength. It may go, almost in the moment that 
gave it birth, but it is real. 

I have sometimes seen parents, in playing with their children, 
go from without to the window, or behind the leaves of a bower 
— the children not knowing of their presence — just opening a 
space large enough to show the eye or the brow, and perhaps 
speaking a name, and then, as soon as the children caught a 
glance of them, disappear ; and the children, with laughter and 
glee, would pursue them. There is a piquancy in such sportive- 
ness not only to the child's affection, but to his curiosity. 

Now it seems to me that there are such effects produced by 
these momentary outlooks of Christ upon us. Where we have 



APRIL. 15 7 

been in great grief, where the days have been sodden and heavy, 
where the current of life seems to have turned to mud, which 
has no flow in it, and we are bemired — then often there comes 
to us out of heaven a sense of Christ's love and life-giving pow- 
er, and of Christ saying to us, " Because I live, ye shall live 
also. If ye suffer with me, ye shall reign with me." The thing 
itself may last only a moment, but the sweetness lasts for years. 



APRIL 3: MORNING. 
Gentle; showing all meekness unto all men. — Tit. in., 2. 

I think the thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians is the most 
perfect description of a gentleman that ever was written or 
thought of. It is Paul's representation of love. If you will 
substitute politeness for love, you will see that this is so. Not 
that I would reduce love to politeness ; but while that chapter, 
as it stands, is the most glorious chant that ever was chimed 
out of the belfry of inspiration, it has a peculiar significance in 
this connection if we say politeness instead of love. 

"Politeness suffereth long and is kind; politeness envieth not; 
politeness vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave 
itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, 
thinketh no evil" — and so to the end of the chapter. 

The beginning of good manners, the beginning of politeness, 
is the inspiration of a true, pure, generous, loving heart. This 
every man ought to have. And where a man has this, it will 
overflow, and show itself in his countenance, in his manners, in 
his dress, in every thing about him. 

APRIL 3 : EVENING. 

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the 
world through him might be saved. — John iii., 17. 

In looking up into the heavenly land, the sense of Christ to 
me seems as real as the last earthly experience through which 
I have gone. Sometimes it is an ever-changing presentation 
which I have, full-orbed, and advanced to the very height of 
transcendent glory. At other times Christ seems to me most 



158 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

companionable, and I fancy that I walk with him, just as his 
disciples walked with him when he was on the earth, and talk 
with him. At times I see him to be potential in mercy. At 
other times I see him encouraging and most sweetly winning. 
But I think the aspect of Christ which predominates is that in 
which he shows himself a Savior ; in which he is seen to be 
savino - men — saving them from danger, saving them from tempt- 
ation, saving them from sin, saving them from those snares 
which sin brings upon them, saving them from those pitfalls 
into which transgressions plunge them, and out of which it is 
so hard for them to climb. 

The view of Christ as saving his people — as working in them, 
working for them, working by the great round of providence, 
working by his special manifestations, and working in them to 
will and to do — the aspect of Christ as one having a saving na- 
ture, and that spirit in which he says, " I came not to condemn 
the world," in which he calls men to him, and which he mani- 
fested in laying down his life that he might save the world — 
this aspect of Christ is the most precious to me, for my own 
sake, and for the sake of my fellow-men. 



APRIL 4 : MORNING. 
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. — Isa. xlv., 22. 

All piety should have a certain degree of self-examination ; 
but there be many persons that are taught, or that incline 
without teaching, to have an excessive habit of self-conscious- 
ness — self-culture as it is called. Every man must know some- 
thing about himself, but it is very easy for him to know too 
much. It is very easy for a man to make his own experience 
the spool about which to wind the whole thi-ead of life. And, 
under such circumstances, what is a man's piety but a spiritu- 
ally baptized self-consciousness ? How can the heart lift itself 
in transport? What is there that a man can see who only 
looks in and down ? And, above all, how can a man that is all 
the time thinking of his own moods and states, or of his own 
victories and defeats — how can a man that moves about his 
own self with a perpetual iteration — how can such a man aban- 



APRIL. 159 

don himself generously to a thought of God which shall make 
his whole soul go out toward him in ecstasy ? Praising is not 
compatible with that style of piety. 

I thought upon my sins, and I was sad ; 

My soul was troubled sore and filled with pain ; 
But then I thought on Jesus, and was glad ; 

My heavy grief was turned to joy again. 

I saw that I was lost — far gone astray ; 

No hope of safe return there seemed to be ; 
But then I heard that Jesus was the way — 

A new and living way prepared for me. 

Then in that way, so free, so safe, so sure, 

Sprinkled all o'er with reconciling blood, 
Will I abide, and never wander more, 

Walking along in fellowship with God. 



APRIL 4 : EVENING. 

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ 
Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strength- 
en, settle you.— 1 Peter v., 10. 

Did you ever see a sculptor make a statuette or statue ? He 
begins with dirt, you know. He has a few rude sticks for a 
frame, and then he puts on the clay. When it is tempered 
aright he roughs out the general form. Then he begins to 
scrape off the plaster. Then he works for symmetry, and lines, 
and grace, and proportions. Then he works for resemblances. 
And at last, as the work is becomiug consummated, he puts on 
the finest touches. And all the way through it is dirt. Yet, 
as the sculptor goes on working thus with this lifeless mate- 
rial, to bring out at last the finest lines and lineaments, that the 
model,- when completed, may be transmuted into the glowing 
marble, or bronze, or silver, or gold, as the case may be — so 
God is dealing with us ; so he is building its up : he is taking 
off and putting on, that after a while, when the work is com- 
pleted, we may be transmuted into higher forms, and be as 
pillars in the temple of our God, and become men in Christ Je- 
sus, glowing with all the light of blessedness and immortality. 

Now, to those that are in the midst of trial, to those that are 
in the crucible, walking through the fire, there is this consola- 
tion: your troubles and trials are watched of God, and you are 
beloved of him ; and, though you may be tried with great 



160 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

temptations to wickedness, yet, if you are " steadfast in the 
faith," he will not forget you, nor give you up, nor suffer you 
to he tempted more than you are able to hear, but with every 
temptation will open a door of escape. 



APRIL 5 -..MORNING. 

Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet 
believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. — 1 Peter i., 8. 

" Can every man be joyful ?" Yes, every man. " Can all 
men alike he joyful ?" No. There will be gradations in joy, 
as in every other Christian grace ; but every man, in his own 
measure, may be joyful, and every man may strive to increase 
in joyfulness. If you refuse it; if you thrust it from you; if you 
make up your mind that you can not attain it before you begin 
to seek it ; if you say, " It is a grace that belongs to saintship, 
and not to ordinary Christian experience," then there will be 
no participation in it for you. But if you feel that it does be- 
long to ordinary Christian experience, that it is a radiant circle 
which God puts about the soul as its crown, and that you have 
a right to your crown, as every other man has a right to his ; 
if you seek for it as a thing to be desired, then it shall be yours. 
Yqu that are called of God, you that have a hope in Jesus 
Christ, have not only a duty, but a right of joy. It is a part 
of that treasure which God has given you. And you should be 
increasingly joyful. The older you grow, and the nearer you 
come to the kingdom of heaven, the more your heart should 
shine, and the more your tongue should bear witness to the 
goodness of him that has redeemed you. 

Why walk in darkness ? Our true light yet shineth : 

It is not night, but day : 
All healing and all peace his light enshrineth — 

Why shun his loving ray ? 

Are night and shadows better, truer, dearer 

Than day, and joy, and love ? 
Do tremblings and misgivings bring us nearer 

To the great God of love ? 

Light of the World, undimming and unsetting, 

Oh shine each mist away ; 
Banish the fear, the falsehood, and the fretting — 

Be our unchanging day. 



APRIL. 161 



APRIL 5 : EVENING. 

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so will- 
ingly after this sort ? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we 
given thee. — 1 Chron. xxix., 14. 

A little child brought me, one day, some flowers. He evi- 
dently did not know much about flowers. He said he picked 
them by the wayside. Some were savory, and some were not 
so savory ; but as he handed them to me he said, " They are 
the best I could find." He showed that he would have been 
glad to give me better ones, though he had only a vague idea 
of what " better" was in my case. There was just the begin- 
ning of generosity in the child manifesting itself through taste ; 
and his feeling was, " I wish they had been better flowers." 

Now you never carried flowers to one that you loved with- 
out feeling that better flowers were deserved by that one. You 
never did any thing for one who was dear to you without feel- 
ing that the service w r as far less than you fain would have had 
it. And no man ever suffered for the Lord Jesus Christ, or 
served him with any worthiness at all, without saying, " I have 
not done so well as I would like to do." There is such supe- 
riority, such gentleness, such sweetness, such sympathy, such 
patience, such faithfulness of love in Christ, that one is ashamed 
of the best service he can render him, it is so far beneath his 
desert. In serving the Lord Jesus Christ, the more you suffer, 
and the more you deny yourself, the greater is the evidence 
which you give of lbve for him. 



APRIL 6: MORNING. 

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and 
righteousness, and sanotification, and redemption.— 1 Cor. i., 30. 

What is it that makes a person a Christian ? A very little, 
with infinite consequences. It takes but very little to make a 
man a Christian, although the consequences of that little are 
infinite. Just as soon as a person has any conception of Jesus 
Christ as the Master and the Model of the life of true benevo- 
L 



162 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

lence, and purity, and truth which he prescribes for us — just as 
soon as a person has the simplest conception of the life that 
Christ lives and that he commands men to live, and then can 
truly say, " I am willing to begin that life ; I am willing to go 
to school to my master Jesus; I am willing to learn; and I 
covenant with him to do his will as fast as it is revealed to 
me ; I covenant with him to be a good scholar, to learn, and, as 
fast as I learn, to practice every thing which he commands me 
to do, as in the New Testament it is spread out in the four Gos- 
pels, showing what the Christian life is as he lived it and com- 
mends it to others" — just as soon as a man can say, " Though I 
shall understand this very imperfectly, and shall come short a 
great many times, and shall fail here and there, yet I am willing 
to begin, and I am willing, as far as life, and breath, and strength 
are given me, to attempt to be a pupil, a scholar, a disciple of 
the Lord Jesus Christ," just so soon he begins to be a Christian. 



APRIL 6 : EVENING. 

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. — Revela- 
tion ii., 17. 

Christians are in great conflict and peril, and, in consequence 
of the strifes and dangers of Christian life, they need something 
more than they can minister to themselves. They need food 
that is better than the daily bread for which we are taught to 
pray ; and the promise is that, if they are faithful in their Chris- 
tian life, God will give them this other food that they need. " I 
will give to every man that is a true soldier," says Christ, " to 
every man that holds the faith of Christ, and that means to 
maintain a godly and pure life — to every such man, whatever 
may be his trials, his perils, and his inducements, if he will only 
overcome his temptations, I will give a hidden support. I will 
feed him inwardly. As the Israelite had visible manna, so he 
shall have manna that is invisible, hidden, mystic." 

I would to God that in some adequate way the experience 
of this truth might be gathered out of that army of suffering 
ones that the world has seen, and framed into a history, and 
poured forth upon men, that the world might know how God 
does do exceeding abundantly more than we ask or think for 



APRIL. 



163 



those that are willing for Christ's sake to cut off the right hand, 
"or pluck out the right eye, or forego any temptation or any in- 
ducement of pleasure. 

When first before his mercy-seat 
Thou didst to him thy all commit, 
He gave the warrant from that hour 
To trust his wisdom, love, and power. 

Did ever trouble yet befall, 
And he refuse to hear thy call ? 
And has he not his promise pass'd 
That thou shalt overcome at last ? 

He who has helped me hitherto 
Will help me all my journey through. 
And give me daily cause to raise 
New trophies to his endless praise. 



APRIL 7 : MORNING. 
"What must I do to be saved?— Acts xvi., 30. 

The thought can not be entertained for a moment that you 
will be lost. The question is this : How shall I be saved ? God 
says the difficulties are so many that you must wake up. The 
work of securing your salvation is a real business. Not by 
dreaming, not by sweet sentimentalities, not by going into a 
congregation and chanting hymns that bless God, and weeping 
at prayers that touch the fountains of susceptibility, and think- 
ing airy thoughts of the past and rosy thoughts of the future — 
not by these things can you be saved. You must begin at the 
foundation of your character if you would make it what it 
should be. Let the wicked man forsake wickedness ; let the 
corrupt man forsake corruption ; let men take hold of them- 
selves as they would take hold of an old mansion that they 
wished to renovate. If it* is rotten in the sills, replace the 
sills ; if it is infested with vermin, cleanse out the vermin ; if 
it is filled with dirt, remove the dirt ; if the walls are pestilen- 
tial, scrub the walls and replaster them. Or, if there is no 
other way, destroy the building, and begin it anew. Be bora 
again, as it were. Count all the years of your past life as if 
they were nothing at all. Turn round and say, " The day in 
which I begin to try to live for God is my birthday." 



264 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Oh blessed promise, oh wondrous economy of grace, by which 
a man, after having lived forty or fifty years in sin, can start 
again, God saying to him, " I will cancel the past ; you may 
begin again as if you never had stumbled and done wrong." 



APRIL 1 : EVENING. 

Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. — Micah vii., 19. 

God gave you the thought of becoming a Christian ; the im- 
pulse to try to become one ; the first slight yearning warmth 
of soul which you experienced. He is beforehand with you; 
and he will not wait till you have achieved before he will 
achieve for you, by you, and in you. He is doing exceeding 
abundantly more for you than you can ask or think. 

To the guidance of that good God let every soul commit it- 
self. Feeble in knowledge ; ignorant of the way in which we 
are walking, and of many things that hinder our progress ; 
blinded as to moral truth; knowing less about those things 
which we most need to know than we think we do ; constantly 
subject to oscillation and variation ; proud and selfish ; fre- 
quently cruel to each other, and more cruel to ourselves ; de- 
ceiving others, and striving to deceive God ; full of bitterness ; 
of the earth, earthy — oh, what shall we do with such natures 
as ours if there be no sweetening influence, no divine Leader, 
no spiritual Instructor? 

To that dear Spirit of all light, and all knowledge, and all 
comfort, I commit you. Put your heart in the summer of di- 
vine love, and remember that "all things work together for 
good to them that love God." 



APRIL 8 : MORNING. 

Lo! these are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard of him? 
— Job xxvi., 14. 

See how endless is God's exjjression of the infinity of taste. 
What a marvelous variety is displayed in the vapors, that are 
renewed every single day. The heavens are God's dome. We 
wonder at the variety of scenes which Michael Angelo painted 



APRIL. 



165 



in the dome of St. Peter's at Rome; but what is that compared 
with the variety which we behold in the dome of the heavens, 
where every day God paints frescoes, and rubs them out, that he 
may paint again the next day, and never twice alike. Look at 
the infinite variety which God has displayed in field-pictures — 
in flowers. There is no conceivable color or form which has not 
been employed in order that the fullness and creativeness of 
the divine mind in the line of beauty might be manifested. 
And if taste, which is an outskirt faculty, is worth such illus- 
tration and illumination, what will be the endless variations of 
creative forms which shall greet our gaze when God lets us 
look on the interior book, wherein he expresses himself in the 
height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the delicacies of 
love ? We do not see them now, because, having eyes, we see 
not ; but the endless expressions of divine love, and the effects 
produced by it, exist, though we do not see them. They are 
yet to be seen by us when we shall have become educated, and 
our eyes shall have become refined. 



APRIL 8: EVENING. 

And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job 
sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt- 
offerings according to the number of them all : for Job said, It may be that my 
sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. 
—Job i., 5. 

Oh ! woe, woe is on your child if you can not pray for it. I 
would rather live in widowhood and childless forever, than to 
have children and not be able to pray for them. If you can not 
pray for your children, they will be beggars unless you get 
somebody to pray for them. For every child there should be 
laid up treasures of prayer, whose almoner is God, and whose 
providences shall run through all its years. You are living 
under an administration, as it were, built on purpose for just 
such offices of love, just such a laying up of prayers. 

Oh, Christian parents, do not forget to pray, and pray much. 
It is a good way to lay up treasure. And do not let your faith 
forsake you. Do not, because it seems as though your child 
was going to ruin, think that God has not heard, and is not go- 



166 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

ing to answer, your prayers in his behalf. Do not forget to 
trust God. You do not know the future. There are more 
ways than you dream of, in the economy of God, for bringing 
souls to heaven. I do not believe one disappointed parent will 
stand before God and say, " I took thee at thy word, and laid 
up treasures for my children, praying for them day and night, 
and now where are they ? — they are not here !" God will an- 
swer your prayers. Do not stint them, and then do not doubt 
that they will be answered. 

Yes, pray for whom thou lovest ; thou mayest vainly, idly seek 
The fervid words of tenderness by feeble words to speak; 
Go kneel before thy Father's throne, and meekly, humbly there, 
Ask blessing for the loved one in the silent hour of prayer. 

Yes, pray for whom thou lovest ; if uncounted wealth were thine— 
The treasures of the boundless deep, the riches of the mine — 
Thou could'st not to thy cherished friends a gift so dear impart, 
As the earnest benediction of a deeply loving heart. 



APRIL 9: MORNING. 
Have faith in God.— Mark xi., 22. 

You must not compare your own peculiarities with your 
neighbors', and say, " Their constitutional tendencies are such 
that they can easily restrain their faculties from working in 
wrong directions, and they ought to do it ; but I am so organ- 
ized that I can not do it, and it is of no use for me to try. By 
faith and patience you can do it. There is release for you from 
your evil inclinations if you will but employ the powers which 
God has given you with which to overcome them. The crook- 
ed can be made straight. As a crooked piece of timber can be 
made straight though its nature can not be changed, so a man's 
faults can be corrected though his natural disposition can not 
be rooted out. 



APRIL 9: EVENING. 

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves : it is 
the gift of God. — Eph. ii., 8. 

Are there no dangerous elements in your disposition ? Are 
there no savage beasts in the menagerie of your soul, which, if 



AFR1L. 267 

they should break away from the restraints that hind them, 
would pounce upon and lacerate whatever came in their way ? 
Have you never experienced the feeling of hatred ? Have there 
never been lurid moments in which revenges sprang like fires of 
hell from your soul ? 

There are to-day, sailing under the flag of pirates, men whose 
original elements of disposition were as good as mine or yours. 
There are men engaged in almost every description of crime 
to-day whose early tendencies were as good as yours, and 
who had as favorable a chance as you had of making upright, 
respectable citizens. Now, why are they in their situation, 
and you in yours ? It is because there has been a sovereign 
providence, a grace of God, which, for wise and mysterious rea- 
sons not revealed to us, has led us in the way in which we have 
walked, and left them in the way in which they have walked. 



APRIL 10 : MORNING. 

Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and tho 
power of his Christ. — Rev. xii., 10. 

There is nothing that can enter into the conception of man 
which is so sweet and glorious as the conduct and nature of 
God, when viewed in the light of the higher ranges of human 
experience. I never bless God so much as when I think that 
he came into the world to search for me and save me ; and 
this fact never comes, to me as a living reality that I do not long 
to stand, with all the intelligences of the universe, and say, 
"Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals there- 
of, and to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
and honor, and glory, and blessing." I can worship such a one. 
A throne I can not worship. A soul I can worship ; a head I 
can not ; a hand I can not ; a sceptre I can not ; but a heart I 
can. Before a heart I can bow down, and feel that in bowing 
down I am forever and forever lifted up. 

Since I have learned thy love, my summer, Lord, thou art — 
Summer to me, and day, and life-springs in my heart. 
Thy blood blots out my sin ; thy love casts out my fear ; 
Heaven is no longer far, since thou, its Sun, art near. 



168 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

APRIL 10: EVENING. 
Faith which worketh by love.— Gal. v., 6. 

That power of the mind by which we bring definitely and 
clearly before us invisible truths, whether they be truths of 
quality, truths of person, or truths of place, that power which 
enables us to see what the senses can not see, is one mode or 
form of faith ; but that is not its full form. Faith that works 
by love is the faith that saves the soul and sanctifies the life. 
The largest and best way of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ by 
faith is to take him in such a sense that our souls go out to 
him in the form of love. It is such a presentation of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, through the imagination, to our minds, as draws 
forth toward him the soul's enthusiasm and secret life. It is 
the personal allegiance of love to Christ. A perception of his 
grandeur of nature, of his beauty, of his sympathy with us, of 
his supreme excellence in every part — such a perception that 
we clasp him with our feelings, that we put our souls wholly 
under his influence — that is receiving Christ by the heart. 
Both mine arms are clasped around thee, 

And my head is on thy breast ; 
For my weary soul has found thee 
Such a perfect, perfect rest. 

Dearest Savior, 
Now I know that I am bless'd. 



APRIL 11 : MORNING. 
For ye are all the children cf God by faith in Christ Jesus. — Gal. iii., 2G. 

Suppose that I think of friends who are at my house, but 
whom I have not yet seen. I am conscious that they are be- 
nevolent, and kind, and sympathetic, and that they love me. 
And yet, if one of them comes into my presence, and in con- 
versation his thoughts and feelings flow and overflow, and I see 
the actual expression of his affection, it produces in me a far 
different state of mind from what it did when I merely believed 
that it existed. For now, in the last case, where I see the per- 
son, and feel the power of his affection, there is an appropria- 
ting faith, as old theologians called it. 



APRIL. 169 

Now to think of Christ in a merely general way produces 
comparatively little effect ; but there is such a thing as having 
such a sense of Christ's presence as answers very nearly to the 
actual physical presence of a friend who makes demonstrations 
of affection toward us. What we are striving after, or should 
strive after, is this appropriating faith — this consciousness of 
Christ's presence and love. 



APRIL 11 : EVENING. 

And there shall be no more curse : but the throne of God and of the Lamb 
shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him; and they shall see his face. 
— Rev. xxii., 3, 4. 

Death will be a revelation. You do not know how many 
relatives you have till you are in heaven. Oh ! when those 
that are around you, and that you meet from day to day with 
little pleasure, meet you again, and they have thrown off the 
cerements of the body ; when you see that in them which is 
good, and in conditions in which counterpoising evil is taken 
away ; when the whole evolutions of their glorious nature are 
disclosed, you will not know them. It will be as when one 
looks upon the banks in January, and says, " How dreary are 
these banks ;" and then in June looks upon the same landscape, 
and says, " It is not the thing that I looked at before." It is 
winter here, and we are frostbitten or ice-clad. It will be sum- 
mer there, and we shall be in fragrant leaf and glorious blos- 
som. And when you reach heaven, you will never be lone- 
some or restrained. Here the necessities of earth, and the pro- 
prieties of life, and the laws and conditions of our lower na- 
ture partition and divide us, and we belong to each other 
more than we do to all the world. But in heaven all that will 
be gone. Every seal there will belong to every soul; every 
heart to every heart ; every love to every love. "We shall be 
God's, and he shall be ours. I will be his Father, and he shall 
be my son. 

Let us not fail to reach that place. Let us take the royal 
road to love, that shall bring us home to happiness, to man- 
hood, and to immortality. 



170 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



APRIL 12 : MORNING. 

But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more 
unto the perfect day. — Prov. iv., 18. 

It is the doctrine of the blessedness of the Spirit of God that 
men should be inspired to a higher degree of activity than they 
could have in their own normal and natural conditions. 

Never be afraid of going too far so long as you are under 
the dominion and influence of sweet affections. Under malign 
influences you may be inspired into fanaticism ; but love never 
went too fast nor too far ; zeal for men never burned too bright- 
ly. The zeal of self-sacrifice ; the earnest endeavor to do good ; 
faith in the solution of all those great questions of character 
that fill the world in regard to human nature — these things 
you may cultivate without the least fear that you will detract 
from the glory of God's Spirit. 

Go forward, then, from day to day, and you will find — the 
most adventurous man will find — that before him, and shining 
brighter and brighter unto the perfect day, is the light and 
the blessing of the Spirit of God. 



APRIL 12 : EVENING. 
How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation %—Heb. ii., 3. 

For you, to whom the Gospel is preached ; for you, upon 
whose cradle rested the dew of grace, and whose earliest years 
were made acquainted with the sacred name of Jesus; the chil- 
dren of pious parents ; reared within sound of the sanctuary ; 
never beyond the sound of a Sabbath bell ; surrounded and 
hedged in by ten thousand influences of religion persuading 
the understanding, importunate upon the conscience — for such 
as you, if Christ be rejected, there is no salvation. For those 
who never heard him ; to whom no sweet sound of the Gospel 
ever came ; whose week was one long, rolling surge, unbroken 
by the tranquil shore of any Sabbath, and who, in this darkness 
and neglect, yet always groped upward, endeavoring to live a 
life better than their times, yearning and longing to know a 
better way — may we not hope, in the inscrutable mystery of 



APRIL. 171 

divine wisdom, that there "was some mode of applying to such 
the benefit of the death of Christ ? that the vision rose at last 
upon their eye, cleansed from the films of flesh? and that, 
among the myriad voices of heaven, there are some from the 
heathen world who, though on earth they could give no name 
to that after which their souls yearned and searched, no sooner 
beheld the divine glory of the Savior than they cried out, " This 
is he for whom we have waited ?" Yes, I firmly believe that it is 
by the power of Christ that every man is saved who shall touch 
the shore of heaven ; but I am not authorized to say that God 
can not, in the sovereignty of his love, conduct men who are in 
darkness to that salvation which we reject, and give them a re- 
flected light, at least, of that glory which shines full on us. 

But for all those who have been clearly taught, who have 
been moved by their wicked passions deliberately to set aside 
him of whom the prophets spake, whom the apostles more 
clearly taught, whom the Holy Spirit, by the divine power, 
now makes known to the world through the Gospel — for them, 
if they reject their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, there remain- 
eth no more sacrifice for sin. If they deliberately neglect, set 
aside, or reject the Savior, he will as deliberately, in the end, 
reject them. 

Death comes down with equal footstep 

To the hall and hut ; 
Think you death will stand a-knocking 

Where the door is shut ? 
Jesus waiteth, waiteth, waiteth, 

But thy door is fast ; 
Grieved, at length away he turneth — 

Death breaks in at last. 

Then 'tis thine to stand entreating 

Christ to let thee in ; 
At the door of heaven beating, 

Wailing for thy sin. 
Nay, alas ! thou foolish virgin, 

Hast thou then forgot ? 
Jesus waited long to know thee, 

Now he knows thee not. 



APRIL 13: MORNING. 
Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. — Rom. xii., 11. 
Work is not God's curse. Work is God's medicine. If it 



172 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

had not been for work when Adam and Eve were cast out of 
Paradise, they would have died of their misery. Work com- 
forted them. Every day ought to have enough work to occupy 
a man wholesomely. Every day has conflicts enough to fill up 
a man's whole time. If a man is trying to carry himself ac- 
cording to the spirit of true love, he has enough to occupy him 
every day. If a man is attempting to subordinate all his pas- 
sions, he has work enough for every day. If a man is endeav- 
oring to fulfill all the duties of life, he has enough to attend to 
every single day, without troubling himself about the duties of 
to-morrow. Every day has occupations of usefulness enough 
to keep a man busy all the while. A man's secular industry, 
his spiritual conflicts, and his life of benevolence are ample con- 
tents with which to grace and fill up every day as it comes. 

APRIL 13: EVENING. 

Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in 
the Lord.— Psalm xxxi., 24. 

Oh, army of unknown saints — ye that go silently on missions 
of kindness among the poor; mothers that die deaths daily for 
your children, or your sister's children, or orphan children; 
teachers whose lives are worn patiently and obscurely out, 
that you may build up other lives ; those that succor the friend- 
less and the helpless, and care not for yourselves; the great 
army of heroes that by faith and hope stand at the bottom of 
society, doing your duty and asking no reward — daylight is 
dawning. On your heads it shall shine first. Lift them up. 
Your salvation is nearer than when you believed. Count not 
any tear shed, or any pain borne, or any groan uttered, as 
thrown away. Look not upon any yearning or any sigh as 
lost. God sits above. He sees all things and knows all things. 
No heart ever identified itself with a thing that was good, or 
loved any truth, or followed any course of justice and duty, 
whose name was not registered on high. When the great day 
of your uplifting shall come, you shall shine as stars. 

It is but a day that we are to live here. It is but a shadow 
that we are making on the earth. We are passing away. We 
have no abiding city here. Our city is there. Live for that. 
Live for Christ, and so live for yourselves. 



APEIL. !73 



APRIL 14 : MORNING. 

God is a spirit ; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and 
in truth. — John iv., 24. 

We ought to confine our utterances of praise to God to those 
times when our hearts make us praise him. Not only that, 
but we ought to be governed by the same rule in regard to all 
other feelings. To go to God with a cold heart, and tell him 
that we burn with love to him, is simply an insult. To say 
that we put our whole trust in him, when we know that we do 
not put a bit of trust in him ; to express the utmost confidence 
in him, and yet hold back and shrink from him with fear — these 
things are exceedingly offensive, and not the less so because 
they are formulated. Let one prepare his mind by reflecting 
upon the grace and mercy of God ; let him go through a pro- 
cess by which the imagination and the feelings are sanctified ; 
let him endeavor, as much as possible, to bring himself con- 
sciously into the divine presence ; let him rid his soul of all 
lower associations by meditation, and singing, and reading the 
Scriptures ; and then, by-and-by, when the fervor comes, let him 
pray just what he means, and just what he feels, and stop when 
the feeling ceases. Such praying would be much more profit- 
able to the subject of it, and much more worthy of God. 



APRIL 14 : EVENING. 

the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how un- 
searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. — Rom. xi. , 33. 

The love of God in Christ Jesus; the greatness, the grandeur, 
and the glory of the heart that, hating iniquity with an intense 
hatred, can love the doer of it, and that, abhorring sin with an 
infinite abhorrence, can give itself to save the sinner — these are 
past finding out. The marvel of meekness, and sweetness, and 
love in the God of infinite purity and justice — this it is that is 
past finding out. 

If God cared for the misconduct of men no more than we do 
for the fiery strifes of an ant-hill, there would be no foundation 
for such a conception of divine gentleness and divine goodness. 



1 74 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

There are some who seem to think that God, when he created 
men and placed them in the world, set on foot an experiment ; 
that he does not care what they do, but that he is satisfied to 
let them act as they choose, and see what they will come to. 
Let them have such an idea of God ! I will have none of it ! 
God is the righteous judge of all the earth. He is the eternal 
author and lover of equity. 

"Unto the wicked God saith,What hast thou to do to de- 
clare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in 
thy mouth ? Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one 
as thyself ; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order be- 
fore thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I 
tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver." 

God comes, and who shall stand before his fear ? 
Who bide his presence when he draweth near? 

My soul, my soid, prepare 

To kneel before him there ! 

How can I bear thy fearful anger, Lord ? 
I, that so often have transgressed thy word ? 

But put my sins away, 

And spare me in that day ! 

Yea, I have sinned, as no man sinned beside : 
With more than human guilt my soul is dyed ; 

But spare, and save me here, 

Before that day appear ! 



APRIL 15 : MORNING. 
Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us, to the glory cf 
God. — Rom. xv., 7. 

Can any one who has drunk deeply of the spirit of the Mas- 
ter refuse to accept the injunction of the apostle, "We that are 
strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak ?" It is as if 
a strong swimmer should turn back and lend a helping hand to 
buoy up and lift across the flood one that was weaker or less 
able to swim than himself. "We have no right to disregard, 
much less to hinder, the welfare of any human being. Have I 
a right to go tramp, tramp, tramp, according to the law of my 
physical strength, among little children ? If I am where they 
are, I am bound so to walk as not to tread upon or injure them. 



APRIL. !75 

fections, his pleasures, his privileges, his influence, subject to 
this great law, " Christ died for men, and I must live for men, 
and restrain my power, and forego my rights, even for their 
sake. There is nothing on earth that ought to he so sacred to 
me. Myself should not be more sacred to myself than is that 
human being for whom Christ died." But how we love to lash 
with our tongue men that do not believe as we do ! We love 
to specify different gradations and classifications of men, and 
indulge in contemptuous remarks concerning them. And yet 
there is not a man born on whom God does not look every day, 
and say, " I died for him." There is not a human being who 
has not stamped on him the image and superscription of the 
dying God. What right have I to impugn him, or treat him 
with contempt ? What right have I to walk over him in my 
liberty, real or fancied ? What right have I to tyrannize by 
my superiority over any man for whom Christ died ? 



APRIL 15 : EVENING. 

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the 
midst of the paradise of God.— Rev. ii., 7. 

Thank God, when I go home to heaven, I shall leave behind 
many things that will be of no use to me there. When an en- 
gine is taken from one boat and placed in another, it is not 
necessary that the fastenings should go with it. The screws, 
and clamps, and feeding-pumps that belong to that particular 
ship from which it is taken may be left behind. The screws, 
and clamps, and feeding-pumps that have been necessary to 
keep my mind in this body, and to patch and mend which has 
given me so much trouble, I shall leave in the grave. But my 
supremest reason, my divinest sentiments of religion, my affec- 
tions, my loves, my tastes— these God, the blessed Pilot, shall 
carry safely through the grave and its darkness ; and I shall 
be planted again in heaven, where snows never fall, where 
frosts never come ; and I shall bring out leaf, and blossom, and 
fruit ; and then, with leaf, and blossom, and fruit, I will present 
myself to the throne of God, saying, "Thou hast given me life, 
and life again, and life forever : to thee, and to thee only, be 
praise, and honor, and glory evermore." 



1 76 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



APRIL 16 : MORNING. 

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, Lord ; in the morning will I 
direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. — Psalm v., 3. 

Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word. 
— Psalm cxix., 148. 

A man may read one verse of the Bible, and it shall be the 
rudder of his mind from morning till night; or a man may read 
a whole chapter, or a page, and get nothing at all from it. And 
so with prayer. That man has prayed whose soul has been in 
the conscious presence of God, though he may have uttered 
only a sentence, or a word, or though he may not have uttered 
a word; and a man may address God for hours without lifting 
his soul up into the presence of God, and not pray. Prayer is 
what we need more and more, in proportion as men are less 
and less accustomed to pray. In times of revival, when the 
air is full of sympathy, and when every body speaks it to you, 
then you multiply seasons of prayer. But when you are over- 
whelmed with cares, and your affairs require you to rise early 
and sit up late, and your temptations augment, and you are 
thrown out on the wild sea of secular pursuits, then, under the 
pretence of excessive business, you grow remiss in the duty of 
prayer. Now that is the time, above all others, when you need 
to be faithful in this duty. Usually men pray least when they 
most need prayer, and most w T hen they least need it. 

No man is so busy that he can not read the Word of God 
daily, and no man is so busy that he can not daily stop to bathe 
himself in the heavenly atmosphere. If a man has not time for 
these things, then he has not time to eat. Prayer and the Word 
of God are as the bread of life and as the water of life. The 
soul must day by day be fed on these, or go hungry. 

A moment from this outward life, 
Its service, self-denial, strife, 

I joyfully retreat ; 
My soul, through intercourse with thee, 
Strengthened, refreshed, and calmed shall be, 

Its scenes again to meet. 



APRIL. 177 



APRIL 16: EVENING. 
Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. — Hosea vi., 3. 

Speaking of the whole round of men's experience in this 
estate, the apostle says, " As long as you live in this world you 
will see the brightest truths and the clearest outlines as through 
a glass darkly." But does that put what you do know to 
shame ? No ; it is real knowledge as much as any. It is frag- 
mentary, but it is the beginning of knowledge. It is only a 
part. It is seen, not too much, but 'too dimly. And when you 
die and go to heaven, let no man say " your earthly knowl- 
edge has all perished." No; we shall trace again the lines 
which here we traced but feebly. There will glow the ever- 
lasting light ; and all the impressions which here were but sem- 
inal, there will be in full blossom and fruit. All those truths 
which we saw, and saw in the twilight — shall we not see them 
yet more gloriously, because the twilight is swallowed up in 
everlasting day? We shall not have occasion to despise our 
earthly thoughts and yearnings, and knowledges and longings, 
but we shall improve them, and with them and beyond them 
go on forever and forever with the Lord. 

How blessed it is to begin such a life upon earth. How poor 
are they who are without God and without hope in this world. 
They are the richest men who are laying up the brightest, the 
clearest, and the most helpful and noble conceptions of God. 
That way lies manhood. That way lies joy. That way lies 
everlasting- blessedness. 



APRIL 17: MORNING. 
The lame take the prey.— Isaiah xxxiii., 23. 
Suppose that twenty of you are making a pilgrimage across 
the continent on foot. You travel twenty miles a day. Some 
of you are so full of vigor that you can make circuits, and chase 
the hare, and run down the bird in addition to walking your 
twenty miles. That distance is nothing to you. The next five 
walk their twenty miles in comparative ease, without any spe- 
cial difficulty, but they have no strength to spare. The next 
M 



178 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

five get along pretty well, but the journey tells upon them. 
They find it hard to keep their courage up, and are glad enough 
to have night come so that they can rest. The last five are 
tired when they begin, and are tired all the way, and love to 
sit down and rest often, and they linger behind the others, and 
it is long after the camp is pitched, and the fires are lighted, 
that one by one they straggle in. But they all get in. There 
is a great deal of difference between them. Some make the 
journey easily, some do it less easily, some do it with difficulty, 
and some with still more difficulty ; but they are all pilgrims 
and travelers, and they all advance over the route. 

Now, in going to heaven, some make the journey more easily 
than others. Owing to the circumstances of life, there are very 
many differences in this respect. But, although it is desirable 
to be a joyful Christian, it is not of so much importance that 
you should be joyful as that you should be true, conscientious, 
earnest. Rejoice in the Lord. But do not aim at rejoicing. 
Have a cheerful, hopeful, joyful courage if you may, but aim 
at no motive lower than God's favor. Aim at the truth. Aim 
at Christian benevolence. Aim at building up a holy manhood 
that shall be higher than that which belongs to the world 
around you. Then, doubtless, you will find more and more that 
the fruit of the Spirit in you is joy and peace. 

APRIL 17: EVENING. 
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not 
thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it 
may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater : so shall my word be that 
goeth forth out of my mouth : it shall not return unto me void, but it shall ac- 
complish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent 
it— Isaiah lv., 10, 11. 

All the stripes and persecutions that men have borne for the 
sake of goodness ; all the sympathy that they have treasured 
up in their hearts for their fellow-men ; all the blood that they 
have poured out for the cause of truth and righteousness — all 
this has been garnered and placed to their account, not in the 
books of men — God has taken care of it ; and he declares, for 
the encouragement of his fainting children, that as the rain and 
the snow shall not return without accomplishing that whereto 



APRIL. 1»79 

it is sent, so not the slightest thing put forth for goodness, and 
usefulness, and purity shall perish. Though it disappear, though 
it be hidden, it is that it may do its office-work. 

Do not work when you are in the sunshine alone. Do not 
count only those things useful the effects of which you can see. 
The results of usefulness are often covered up. It is well that 
it is so, for man's pride and vanity easily get drunk on the wine 
of success. From those, therefore, that do the most is hidden 
much that they do. It is not best that they should know it 
all. But God knows it; and there comes a registering da,y, a 
reaping day, an exhibition day, a day of welcoming and gratu- 
lation, when good men go home to heaven to be surprised with 
the harvest of which they only sowed the seed — the much that 
has come from the little. 

Say not " 'Twas all in vain" — 

The patience, and the pity, and the word 
In warning breathed 'mid passion's hurricane, 

Unheeded here — but God that whisper heard, 
The tender grief o'er strangers' sorrow shed, 

The sacrifice that won no human praise. 
In faith upon the waters cast thy bread, 

Eor " thou shalt find it after many days." 



APRIL 18 : MORNING. 

As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail! 
And they came and held him by his feet, and worshiped him. Then said Jesus 
unto them, Be not afraid! — Matt, xxviii., 9, 10. 

All hail! Be not afraid. These may almost be called the 
voices of the grave. Within the hour of his coming forth 
doubtless the disciples had met him. The cool of the rock was 
yet upon his brow. The sadness of death was yet scarcely 
cleansed from his eye. He came from death and the grave, 
saying, "All hail ! Be not afraid !" 

His was the inspiration of the other world coming through, 
as a narrow passage, the grave— the rock-grave. He spake in 
the spirit of the land from which he had come ; and to every 
one that has heard of Jesus, from that day to this, that voiqe 
still rings out. His salutation to each one is, "All hail !" and to 
every one his greeting is, " Be not afraid." Very God, our 
Judge yet to be, holding the destiny of every man in his hands, 



180 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

the sovereign Lord and Monarch, yet he meets every one who 
goes to him, how poor soever he may be, how sinful, how neg- 
lected, how outcast ; and his greeting is, "All hail to thee !" 
And to every one who looks up, and is conscious of his great- 
ness, still his greeting is, " Be not afraid." The grave is but 
the shutting of the angel-hand that keeps the treasure, and con- 
veys it safely to the other side. As they who sail over the 
seas go down into the vessel, and are hid, so the grave is but the 
resting-place of the dead for a little time — not decay; not loss; 
not final separation in darkness. No ; instructed by these words, 
the voice should sound out to every one of us that comes to the 
grave-side, "All hail !" and as we look again, " Be not afraid." 

APBIL 18 : EVENING. 
How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gath- 
ereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. — Matt, xxiii., 37. 

Do not be afraid to confess your sin, and, above all, do not 
be afraid to confess your sin to Jesus. If you are afraid of God 
— though you should not be — then turn to Jesus. It is easy 
for sorrow to confess to love. 

When the stern father overtakes the child that is in fault, 
"and anger is on his brow, anger also is in the heart of the child ; 
and the intense firmness of the father kindles an .intense obsti- 
nacy in the child. He will not bend, nor break, nor confess. 
But when the sun goes down, and the pain is over, and the ob- 
durate child is gathered to the household in the evening, and 
twilight comes with all its softening influences, and he is alone 
with his mother, who wipes the tears that she can not keep from 
her eyes, and loves him, and puts her arm fondly about him, and 
only looks at him, and utters no word of reproach, oh ! how does 
the generous child, with a turbulent tide of feeling, burst out 
into tears, and say, " Mother, I did do it — I did do it !" And 
what the father failed to extract, the mother's look has brought. 

If for justice' sake, if for fear of the law, you will not confess 
your sin and forsake it, look unto the love of Jesus, the tender- 
ness of Jesus. And if you would make it easy, oh ! turn to the 
bosom of Christ ; let him put his arm about you, and let him 
look upon you with those sorrowing eyes. " How often would 
I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
wings, but ye would not." 



181 



APRIL 19 : MORNING. 

Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto 
the glory and praise of God. — Phil, i., 11. 

I am a citizen on the Fourth of July ; but I am no more a 
citizen then than I am on the fifth, or on the sixth, though I 
make a great deal more ado about it. And a man is Christ's, 
not because he feels so very much lifted up, but because his 
reason, his judgment, and his heart have agreed together to ac- 
cept the commandments of Christ, and the person of Christ, as 
their chief, and because he is determined, by the help of God, 
to live in this mind all the days of his life. It is that act of 
the will, that choice, which gives men the evidence that they 
are Christians, and makes them Christians. 

Some days you read the Bible, and like it — so do I; some 
days you read the Bible, and do not see any thing in it — so do 
I. Some days you enjoy prayer — so do I ; some days you do 
not — nor do I. With every body it is just so. And so it will 
be until people are balanced so exactly that there is no rising 
too high or falling too low — so it will be, in other words, to the 
end of the world. It is not safe for persons to judge whether 
they are Christians or not by watching their transient moods. 



APRIL 19: EVENING. 
Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. — John xx., 20. 

To those who are mourning the hiding of Christ's face ; to 
those who are conscious that, by reason of unbelief or doubt, 
Christ is much hidden from them, I would say, Remember that 
he disappeared from among his disciples only for a few hours, 
and then reappeared never to be separated from them. He left 
them for their good. He restored himself to them that that 
good might be consummated in them. If you have once had a 
saving knowledge of the Savior, and have lost it, it may be re- 
newed. For, as when two that are really knit together in af- 
fection have had some misunderstanding, and have gone apart, 
both hearts are empty, and both are hungry for reconciliation, 
so it is between the soul and the Savior — only with this differ- 



182 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

ence, that as he is the greater, and the truer, and the nobler 
One, he yearns for us more than we know how to yearn for 
him. And as he stood gathering and mustering again the dis- 
ciple hand after his resurrection, so he stands now, saying to 
every wandering, darkening soul that has lost its hold on him, 
" I am he ; I am the way." 



APRIL 20 : MORNING. 
For me to live is Christ. — Phil, i., 21. 

We are very apt, in the regularity of teaching, to carry for- 
ward our faith of Christ to the dying hour, and to think of a 
Christ that can rise upon us in that mortal strife with healing 
in his beams. We are not apt to have Christ with us every 
day in its vicissitudes and disappointments ; we are not apt to 
take Christ into the checks, and frets, and hindrances, and mis- 
directions of this world, into our bereavements and misfortunes. 
We are apt to regard Christ as remote from us, and to put him 
forward to the time of our final dismission from this world. 

He who has learned how to die in his passions every day; 
how to die in his pride from hour to hour ; he who has Christ 
in each particular thwarting and event of life ; he who knows 
how, from the varied experiences of life, to bring forth day by 
day a Christian character, need not fear the grand and final ex- 
perience of earth to which he is coming. There is no death to 
those who know how to die beforehand. Those who lay them- 
selves upon Christ, and take the experiences of every-day life 
in the faith of Christ ; those who see the will of God in every 
thing that abounds, whether wounding or healing — they have 
nothing left at the end of life except peace, translation, and the 
beginning of immortality. 



APRIL 20 : EVENING. 
Oh, love the Lord, all ye his saints.— Psalm xxxi., 23. 

Christ comes to every man and demands of him love. He 
presents himself in every aspect in which a greater mind can 
be presented to a lower ; he presents himself as the Son of God, 



APRIL. 183 

the Savior of the world, your personal friend, and your elder 
brother ; he embodies in himself every tender relationship of 
which we can conceive ; and he asks, he claims as his right, 
that you should love him. 

If love were a sealed fountain, if you had never learned to 
love, you would be less to blame for neglecting to love Christ. 
But among the things taught earliest is love ; among the things 
most experienced in life is love ; and among the things remem- 
bered latest is love. When the child comes into life, almost the 
first thing he does is to send out his heart in trust, and confi- 
dence, and love ; and though the objects of his primal affection 
are limited and imperfect, they are sufficient to excite in him 
the dormant spark of love. But when it is the infinite Creator ; 
when it is the glorious God; when it is he that has laid down 
his own life for you ; when it is he, rather, that has taken it up 
again, and lives to intercede for you ; when it is he that sends 
you day by day fresh glories, and that night after night sur- 
rounds you with mercies ; when it is he that through all the 
periods of your life watches over you with most tender solici- 
tude and scrupulous fidelity ; when it is he that outvies all oth- 
er affections, and showers his own upon you more copiously 
than clouds ever rained drops or seasons ever gave forth fruit ; 
when it is he that comes to you, and says, " My son, give me 
thine heart," what will you do with this Jesus that yearns for 
your love ? Will you not love him ? 

Oh, see how Jesus trusts himself 

Unto our childish love ! 
As though, by his free ways with us, 

Our earnestness to prove. 

His sacred name a common word 

On earth he loves to hear ; 
There is no majesty in him 

Which love may not come near. 



APRIL 21 : MORNING. 
Happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.— 1 Peter 
iv., 14. 

Before any daisy or violet, before any blossom is seen in the 
field, the sun lies with its bosom to the ground, crying to the 
flower, and saying, " Why tarriest thou so long ?" And day 



184 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

after day the sun comes, and pours its maternal warmth upon 
the earth, and coaxes the plant to grow and bloom. And when 
days and weeks have passed, the root obeys the call, and sends 
out its germ, from which comes the flower. And it was the sun 
that brooded it into life. Had it not been for the sun's warmth 
and light, the flower could never have come to itself. 

So the eternal Spirit of God rests on the human soul, warm- 
ing it, quickening it, calling it, and saying, " Oh, my son, where 
art thou?" And it is this divine sympathy and brooding in- 
fluence that at last brings men to God, and leads them to say, 
"Am I not sinful?" and to yearn for something higher, and 
purer, and holier. It was God's work. He long ago was work- 
ing in you, to will and to do of his own good pleasure. 



APRIL 21 : EVENING. 

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and he that ruleth his 
spirit than he that taketh a city.— Prov. xvi., 32. 

Do not tell me that .confession is all a degrading thing. Do 
not tell me that it is all a painful thing. It is painful as long 
as you strive against it ; it is rendered painful by many of the 
lacerations of expiation ; but, after all, through confession of 
sin and renunciation, we come to an atmosphere in which we 
breathe the very breath of heaven itself. No one who has done 
wrong can feel so happy as he who has come out of it,and has 
not covered it up, but has forsaken it, and confessed it, and risen 
beyond it. That is the royal way. 

Some of the highest and most noble experiences that men 
have in this world are those that they have when they have 
overcome a wrong, clearly, avowedly, and are conscious in their 
whole being that they stand beyond it ; when they have con- 
fessed it to God and forsaken it ; when they have gained a vic- 
tory over their own disposition. A victory within us is ten 
thousand times more glorious than any victory than can be 
outside of us. A man that subdues himself is better than a 
man that subdues empires to himself. 

It is glorious to be conscious 

Of a glorious power within, 
Stronger than the rallying forces 

Of a charged and marshaled sin. 



APRIL. . 185 



APRIL 22 : MORNING. 

Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.— 1 
Thess. v., 6. 

This is a military figure. Although watching may be a do- 
mestic figure, ordinarily it is military. A tower, a castle, a fort, 
is not content with simply the strength of its walls and its va- 
rious defenses. Sentinels are placed all around about it, and 
they walk both night and day, and look out on every side to 
descry any approaching danger, that the soldiers within may 
put themselves at once in a condition to receive attack. 

Still more are a moving army watchful, whether upon the 
march or in the camp. They throw out advanced guards. 
The picket line is established by night and by day. Men are 
set apart to watch on purpose that no enemy may take them 
unawares ; that they may constantly be prepared for whatever 
incursion the chances of war may bring upon them. 

Now we are making a campaign through- life. We are upon 
an enemy's ground; we are surrounded, or liable to be sur- 
rounded, with adversaries who will rush in upon us, and take 
us captives at unawares. We are commanded, therefore, to do 
as soldiers do, whether in fort or in camp — to be always vigi- 
lant, always prepared. 



APRIL 22: EVENING. 

But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, 
he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his 
hand, and caught him, and said unto him, thou of little faith, wherefore 
didst thou doubt I—Matt, xiv., 30, 31. 

Many persons are discouraged on account of their feebleness 
of will-power. Nevertheless, their souls must be saved. They 
must go to heaven with the sailing apparatus which God has 
given them. And when the last keel has touched the heavenly 
shore, although the first and swiftest, that outran all the others, 
may be the best, and the next one may be the next best, and 
the next one may be the next best, yet the clumsiest old scow, 
that moved slowly and had to be steered bunglingly, if at last 



186 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

it does touch the shore, shall be welcome. You will say, "Lord 
Jesus, I am here, and that is all." And he will say to you, "I 
had an errand to be performed by some one who should cross 
the stormy deep in just such a structure as this. That patience 
and persevering faith which you have manifested I wanted 
worked out. You have accomplished the task which was set 
apart for you. It was the very thing that I appointed you for. 
Others have beaten you in speed, but there is no other that 
shall take your crown." 

Persevere, and work manfully, with weakness and tempta- 
tion, in darkness and light, and you will reach your heavenly 
Father soon. No father on earth was ever so lenient with the 
faults of his child who wanted to do right, as God is with your 
faults if you want to do right, and will try to do right. In a 
little time you will know that this is so. 



APRIL 23: MORNING. 

Now he that hath wrought for us the self-same thing is God, who also hath 
given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.— 2 Cor. v., 5. 

One simple breath of perfume indicates the blossom, the 
blossom indicates the cluster, the cluster the fruit, and the 
fruit the vintage ; and so, in the experiences of the soul, a 
single note of love, that means companionship, means glory in 
the heavenly state. Here is a yearning of the soul. What 
means this yearning ? What child, who had never known 
father or mother, ever wept from home-sickness ? What child 
who has known father and mother, if separated from them in a 
far distant land, has not shed some tears of longing for home ? 
And what are his tears but an earnest of the joy that awaits 
him when he returns to the bosom of his parents and the com- 
panionship of his brothers and sisters ? 

And what mean these hungerings of the soul ? They mean 
something in the world to come. They ai - e fore-tokens and 
fore-gleams. They are earnests of the promised possession. 
True Christian experiences in this life not only indicate that 
we are in a Christian state, but are God's tokens that we are 
coming to a perfection of those experiences in the future life. 



APRIL. 18 >j- 

They are so many earnests or first payments of that which we 
are to have paid wholly to us when we stand in Zion and be- 
fore Gocl. 

What must it be to dwell above, 

At God's right hand, where Jesus reigns, 

Since the sweet earnest of his love 
O'erwhelms us on these dreary plains. 

No heart can think, no tongue explain, 

What bliss it is with Christ to reign. 



APRIL 23: EVENING. 

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mer- 
cies, and the God of all comfort : who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that 
we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort 
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. — 2 Cor. i., 3, 4. 

God sometimes puts a man in such a position in life that 
he is at peace with himself and out of joint with the outward 
world ; and that is a very solemn situation to be in. A man 
who is thus placed is ordained to be a preacher of consolation 
to all the world about him, and woe be to every such man 
who betrays his trust ! In proportion as a man is harmonious- 
ly organized within, and is placed in outward circumstances 
where he has to pass through struggles which develop in him 
a rich experience, God says to him, " Let your struggles in 
those circumstances be an example and an encouragement to 
others. Strive for their sake. Be to them something of what 
Christ has been to you, and what he is to all the world." If a 
man takes this equipment within — the harmonious organiza- 
tion with which he has been endowed — and makes it a means 
of gratifying his selfishness, and sits down for his own pure de- 
light, he has betrayed his trust most grievously. God requires 
very much of those who have no struggle of their own to wage. 



APRIL 24 : MORNING. 

Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. 
Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away. — Prov. iv. , 14, 15. 

It is said, in one of the old " Lives of the Saints," that the 
devil found a young man at a theatre, and took possession of 



188 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

him ; and the saint rebuked him, and said, " Why do you take 
one of the Lord's children ?" and the devil said, " What busi- 
ness has one of the Lord's children on my ground ?" It is thus 
in temptation. Men tempt the devil They send a message 
to him, inviting him to come and take them. 

There are men who live so near to cheating that, though 
they do not mean to cheat, circumstances can not bend them 
without pushing them over. There are many men who are 
like an apple-tree, whose trunk and roots, and two thirds of the 
branches are in the garden, and one third of Avhose branches 
are outside of the garden wall. So there are many men whose 
trunk and roots are on the side of honesty and uprightness, but 
who are living so near the garden wall that they throw their 
boughs clear over into the highway where iniquities tramp and 
are free. 

It is never safe for a man to run so near to the line of right 
and wrong that, if he should lose a wheel, he would go over. 
You should keep so far from the precipice that, if your wagon 
breaks down, there is room enough between you and the preci- 
pice ; otherwise you can not be safe. 



APRIL 24 : EVENING. 

Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the 
faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of 
God.— Acts xiv., 22. 

Eternal measurements magnify some things and reduce 
others. Suppose, in God's providence, you are reduced to pov- 
erty, and compelled to exchange your comfortable dwelling for 
more humble quarters? Does an Arab cry because his tent is 
pitched here this morning and taken away to-morrow morning ? 
Can God's providence make you poorer than when you came 
into the world? You have got along somehow thus far, and 
do you not suppose that you can get along somehow to the 
end ? There are only two things to go through in this life — a 
door to get in at and a door to get out at, and I think you can 
go through these. When a man is born nothing can prevent 
his dying, and dying is the best thing that can happen to a 
Christian. You are on the way to it ; and every batter, every 



APRIL. 18 g 

blow, every care, every trouble, every fear, every disappoint- 
ment — these are but just so many conspiring winds in your 
sail. They waft you quickly over life's tempestuous sea. They 
are so many things that make it easier to leave the world ; that 
chasten your affections ; that deepen your piety ; that cool the 
fever of your selfish desires ; that throw the light of ineffable 
and eternal glory upon the worthlessness of earth's possessions. 
We need to rise from our low and sordid estimates of this 
world, and judge of times, and events, and experiences by the 
other sphere. 

Our life is not in all these brief possessions ; 

Our home is not in any pleasant spot : 
Pilgrims and strangers we must journey onward, 

Contented with the portion of our lot. 

These earthly walls must shortly be dismantled ; 

These earthly tents be struck by angel hands ; 
But to be built upon a sure foundation, 

There, where our Father's mansion ever stands. 

There shall we meet, parent and child, and dearer 
That earthly love which makes half heaven of home ; 

There shall we find our treasures all awaiting, 

Where change, and death, and parting never come. 



APRIL 25 : MORNING. 
If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. — Matt, xix., 17. 

Nothing will convict a man of his sinfulness sooner than the 
attempt to practice the teachings of Christ. Many persons 
seem to think that there is to be a projected conversion; a 
spiritual phantasmagoria, if I may say so. They seem to ex- 
pect that there is to be brought before them, by the power of 
God's Spirit, something equivalent to Calvary, with its three 
crosses, and the Savior hanging on the sacred middle one. 
They seem to be looking for some mysterious disclosure which 
shall answer to the very crucifixion of Christ. They are wait- 
ing to behold the wondrous spectacle, whereas they should at 
once endeavor to obey God's law. The first step in that direc- 
tion will show you how far you are from obedience. Try to 
love, try to pray, try to practice the Christian virtues, and do 
it from hour to hour, and you will not be long in finding out 
how selfish you are, how proud you are, how unsympathetic 



190 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

you are in spiritual things, how closely allied you are to world- 
ly things. 



APRIL 25 : EVENING. 

For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his 
face from you, if ye return unto him. — 2 Ckron. xxx., 9. 

The reconciliation of a man's soul with Christ is, I will not 
say one of the easiest, but one of the simplest things in life. 

Have you ever had a quarrel with your father and mother ? 
You have, unless you have been an exceedingly good boy. Do 
not you recollect how you did some wrong that you did not 
want your parents to know ; and how you feared that they 
would find it out ; and how you looked to see if they knew it, 
after the servant had threatened to tell them, and thought they 
did when they did not; how all this time you shrank from them; 
and how, by-and-by, they expressed a confidence in you which 
showed that they did not know it ; and how an impulse came 
over you to make a clean breast of the matter, and you went 
to your mother and burst into tears, and told her yourself, and 
put your head in her lap, and cried; and how you felt better; 
and how, the first thing you knew, her hand was on your hair, 
and she said, " Well, my child, I am sorry you did wrong ; but 
you have done right now in coming to me and telling me. I 
do not believe you will do it any more. Look up, and kiss me;" 
and how she put her arms about you, and drew you to her? 
Was it not the sweetest and best way, when you had done 
wrong, to go and tell your mother, and get her blessing ? If 
you do not know, I do, how good it was, when I had done 
wrong, to be reconciled, so that I could go on again with a light 
heart, singing like a bird. 

Now the Lord Jesus Christ is dearer than any mother, sweet- 
er than any parent, more tender than any lover, better than any 
friend. Most gracious and helpful is your God. Go to him. 
On your way you may stop and tell your minister or friend; 
but go straight to God and say, " Father, I have done wrong ; 
take me and help me." 



APRIL. 191 



APRIL 26 : MORNING. 

My soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in his salvation.— 
Psalm xxxv., 9. 

A Christian life is not one of burdensomeness, but one of 
cheerfulness and gladness. It is not one of drudgery, but one 
of friendship and love. No man presents a type of Christiani- 
ty who lives simply by force of duty. If there is no love in 
you ; if there are no bubbles that reflect heaven before they 
break; if there is no singing joy; if there is no cheerfulness; 
if there is no spontaneousness ; if there is no automatic life, 
then, although you may be a Christian, you are a Christian in 
the same sense in which a chicken is a bird when it is just 
breaking the shell, when it can not run, nor fly, nor do any 
thing except peep. You are like an unfledged robin in the 
nest. And how different is the robin that is grown, and that 
can mount up and make circles through the air in its flight ! 
The peculiarity of Christian life in its characteristic elements 
is that it has so taken God to be its Father, and Christ to be 
its elder brother and Savior, and the service of God in all puri- 
ty and nobleness to be its delight, that it becomes spontaneous. 
It is joyful living ; not drudgery, nor even duty. 



APRIL 26: EVENING. 

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful 
works to the children of men! — Psahn cvii., 8. 

The history of man's life, in respect to the gifts of God that 
come to him through his physical endowments, is, in the main, 
a history of independence by reason of favor received without 
scruple from God's royal bounty, expressed in head, in hand, 
in foot, in throbbing heart, in sensitive nerve, in strong bone, 
in living muscle. All the sinews that God has put together to 
create the most noble thing made under the heaven — we take 
them all as a gift of course. We arrogate to ourselves personal 
beauty if we are handsome, personal strength if we are power- 
ful, personal skill if we have the hand to execute. We take all 
these sovereign gifts of God not with thanksgiving, not as if 



192 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

they brought us nearer to him in sweeter obedience, not as ben- 
efits received, but to separate us from God and our service to 
him. Is it not so ? Look all around about you and say, is it 
not so? Is there a man that is not obliged to acknowledge, 
" I have been ungrateful even in the mere matter of my bodily 
life ; my life has been marked by ingratitude to God ; I have 
never rendered thanks for the many favors received." 

The hosts of heaven proclaim thee wise and just, 

And every flower that blooms beside our ways, 
Each tiny worm that creeps along the dust, 

Or murmuring forest-bough, declares thy praise. 
Alas ! that man, for whom these all were made — 

Himself his Maker's master-piece — that he 

So slow to praise and gratitude should be, 
So apt to rest in what must pass and fade. 



APRIL 27 : MORNING. 

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons 
of God, even to them that believe on his name.— John L, 12. 

It is no time for Christian men to disown the ideal of human 
character set forth by Jesus Christ. The hope of the world 
lies in its ideals. He is the worst of all iconoclasts who vul- 
garizes, or obscui-es and hides the world's ideals. 

It is not for us to deify common moralities, good as they 
are, and indispensable to human life. But they are only the 
root-leaves. When the long-shining summer sun has drawn 
up from among them the slender flowering stem, opened its 
fragrant blossom, and evolved its precious fruit, is it for us to 
take sides with the dirt-spattered seminal leaves, and to hesi- 
tate and waver in mind whether they are not, after all, good 
enough ? 

There was never so much as now a time when men who have 
seen that true light, and who have tasted of the power of the 
invisible world, should hold up the reality, the beauty, and the 
immense superiority of the true Christian character, as the prod- 
uct of God's Spirit working upon the human soul, over all bar- 
ren attainments and results of man's volition, acting unaided 
within the realm of sensuous natural law. 



193 



APRIL 27 : EVENING. 

Neither is there salvation in any other ; for there is none other name under 
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. — Acts iv., 12. 

There is nothing so piteous as the weakness of men, and 
their trouble and suffering under sin. Life is full of it. Life 
sometimes seems to me like a boiling caldron, and men like 
bubbles that come to the surface and burst at every moment. 
Still they rise and perish, and still the caldron boils. And at 
times I have the darkest thoughts as to such a world as this, 
seemingly so abandoned. If I lost faith that the heart of the 
world was love, and that it was still driven by the energiz- 
ing and recreating power of God, I should lose faith in every 
thing. I should hardly want to live ; or, if I did, I should 
want to shield my eyes from the suffering that is in the world. 
And the truth that Christ who was in the flesh now lives, ad- 
vanced at the right hand of God, clothed with power, and hav- 
ing a sympathetic heart ; that he is still laboring to save men ; 
that those who have sinned against him have no other friend 
who is so near to them, who is doing so much for them, and 
who is willing to do so much for them — this truth is extremely 
precious to me. I thank God that Jesus Christ is at work in 
the world, that he has pity for men, that he is going forth still, 
by his Spirit, to seek them and to save them. It is my grow- 
ing consolation. It is my only hope for myself and for others. 



APRIL 28 : MORNING. 
Flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God. — 1 Cor. xv., 50. 

There is immortality beyond this veil. There is a soul that 
can not die. What hast thou done for that soul ? Oh moral 
man, thou art to live in the presence of God ! Where is thy 
title, and where are thy tastes ? Thou art to speak another 
language than that of men upon earth. Speak now some sen- 
tences of the heavenly tongue. Thou art to be brighter than 
the stars if thy destiny be fulfilled ; but where are the signs 
and tokens of it ? Your bones do not inherit immortality. 
N 



194 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Holy 
thoughts and the power of thinking them, heavenly aspirations 
and the power of realizing them — it is these things that belong 
to God's kingdom. It is these that can not die, and that the 
world can not touch. 

# Let love die here ; let my name perish here ; let my house 
pass to another ; let my children wither as leaves upon a bough, 
that has been plucked off; let my life be as him who dwelleth 
in a desert overblown with choking sands, if in that moment, 
when I stand in heaven, God shall say to me, " Enter ; thou art 
welcome." In that one hour I shall reap more than compensa- 
tion for all. But, though my house be builded of gold and sil- 
ver, and my head crowned with chaplets of roses, and all sweet 
delights wait on my feet, and my life be one long-rolling sym- 
phony of joy, that one word, "Depart ! I know you not," will 
overmaster and storm out of the memory the whole of this joy. 
" "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and 
lose his own soul ?" 

In having all things and not thee, what have I ? 

Not having thee, what have my labors got? 
Let me enjoy but thee, what further crave I ? 

And, having thee alone, what have I not ? 
I wish not sea nor land, nor would I be 

Possessed of heaven, heaven unpossessed of thee. 

APRIL 28 : EVENING. 

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a 
man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. — John iii., 3. 

Christian experience is a spiritual experience produced in 
the soul by the direct action of the Holy Spirit of God upon 
the faculties of the soul. It is a new life. It is not reforma- 
tion simply, nor a more perfect obedience to rules or principles, 
but a new sphere, new influences and new experiences, and a 
new and transcendently nobler class of emotions, aspirations, 
and powers. This dispensation of the Spirit began at Jerusa- 
lem at the day of Pentecost. Thenceforth the apostles are 
scarcely to be recognized as the same men. Then followed 
those extraordinary experiences of gifts and miracles under the 
effusion of the Spirit. An evolution had taken place. A new 
race had developed. The human soul had found its way into 



ATK1U 195 

the realm whither lower natural law was unable to bring it, but 
where there were great spiritual natural laws waiting to stim- 
ulate, fertilize, and mature it. 

From this hour the ideal of character changed. The higher 
rules the lower. What man could do under lower influences 
no longer sufficed. All common virtues, moralities, endeavors, 
benevolences, must be measured by the new standard. Hence- 
forth he is Christian whose soul is intersphered with Christ's 
soul. It is faith, or life by the power of the invisible, that 
saves. It is faith that works by love, and purifies the soul, 
that redeems. 



APRIL 29 : MOENING. 

The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to 
teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. — 2 Tim. 
ii., 24, 25. 

When I see men that are crushed to the ground by their 
own vices and dissipations, and people say " Can these men 
live ?" I always think, " Yes, if any body is willing to suffer for 
them, they can live." If there are those who love the soul of 
a man who is weighed down by his own sins so that they can 
give their life for him — not in the sense of laying it down, but 
better, in the sense of going to him, and identifying themselves 
with him in such a way that he knows he has friends who will 
stick forever with him, and pity him, and rebuke and pain him 
if need be, and be his better self to him, and give him the ben- 
efit of their reason when his reason is clouded, and lift him up 
when he stumbles, and bring him back when he wanders out of 
the way — if there are those who are willing thus to suffer for 
such a man, he maybe plucked out of the gates of hell, and out 
of the jaws of destruction. No man need be lost if there are 
those who will do for him what Christ did for all of us. A 
mother will do it for a child ; and a father, if he is not too 
proud, will often be found to do it for a son. But multitudes 
are not saved because there is nobody to take their place, and 
suffer for them and with them. 

There is a great harvest-field, and the labor is terrific, but 
the laborers are few. 



196 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



APRIL 29 : EVENING. 

But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer ; it is I ; 
be not afraid. — Matt, xiv., 27. 

Although we fain would see the Savior coming with a smile, 
he chooses to come often with frowns. Blessed be his name, 
that frowns and smiles alike mean love with him. Just as, in 
the great cycle of the year, frost and dew are the same thing, 
and come with a like merciful errand, though with a different 
function — both of them serving the fruitfulness of nature, and 
being a part of God's ministration of mercy — so is the divine 
presence in the midst of great sorrows. Though dark, though 
acerb, though filling Us with pain, sorrows carry in them the 
Savior. We may may not know it, but he knows it. 

Is your hold upon the promises so feeble that you are tem- 
pest-tossed, and fear mightily, at times, utter wreck ? And do 
you wonder, turning your eye upon what seems to you empty 
space, that Christ should suffer his little ones to be so beset and 
so tried ? Remember that he comes to us in various guises — 
not alone as a radiant Savior and a God of power, but as a man 
of sorrows. He comes in sorrows, and in strifes, and in tempta- 
tions. 

My God once mixed a harsh cup for me to drink it, 

And it was full of acrid bitterness intensest. 

The black and nauseating draught did make me shrink from it, 

And cry, " Oh thou, who every draft alike dispensest, 

This cup of anguish sore, bid me not to quaff of it, 

Or pour away the dregs and the deadliest half of it !" 

But still the cup he held ; and seeing he ordained it, 

One glance at him — it turned to sweetness as I drained it. 



APRIL 30: MORNING. 
But the greatest of these is charity. — 1 Cor. xiii., 13. 

Without love, every other grace and every other attainment 
is void. 

Love is the one interpreter between God and man. 

Love is the one facile harmonizer of the internal discords of 
the human soul. It induces an atmosphere in us in which all 



APRIL. 



197 



feelings find their summer, and so their ripeness. Around no 
other one centre of the human soul will all the faculties gather 
in submission and in obedience, but they will around love. It 
has power to control rage and anger, and subdue them. It 
breaks self-will and obstinacy. It persuades pride. It stimu- 
lates imagination, and enriches it. It gives energy to all the 
moral sentiments; ennobles them; sweetens them; gives them 
more power. While it fires each individual power with intense 
fervor, it mingles the different manifestations of power, like 
flames, in a harmonious fellowship. Love it is — not conscience 
— that is God's regent in the human soul, because it can govern 
the soul as nothing else can. 

And love is the only experience which keeps the soul always 
in a relation of sympathy and of harmony with one's fellows, 
and so it is the truest principle of society. 



APPJL 30 : EVENING. 

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God : but those things which are 
revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the 
works t)f this law.— Deut. xxix., 29. 

Very little of detail is taught in the Bible in respect to 
the future. It is clearly and triumphantly taught that men 
live on after leaving this mortal state, that the good are tran- 
scendently happy, and that their happiness springs from the 
presence and influence of the Redeemer. Beyond this nothing 
is clearly to be found out. The wicked, too, go on in life, and 
are supremely miserable. But this generic truth comprehends 
all. The specific experiences are not revealed. The fancy ma- 
terials with which the Tuscan, Roman, and mediaeval imagina- 
tion depicted the sufferings of the lost are gross and impious 
presumptions, and are to be utterly rejected. The portraitures 
of heaven which fond imaginations are never weary of drawing, 
less mischievous, are not less purely fictitious. 

Our business on earth is to get to heaven, and not to trouble 
ourselves with our probable experiences there. If, in reference 
to even our earthly state, the Master forbade us to worry about 
what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, and wherewithal we 
shall be clothed, how much more would he reprobate the folly 



198 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

of anxious forethought as to our condition in the heavenly life. 
If " sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," much more suf- 
ficient unto this world are the troublous questions thereof. 

The bride eyes not her garments, 

But her dear bridegroom's face ; 
I will not gaze at glory, 

But on my King of Grace — 
Not at the crown he giveth, 

But on his pierced hand : 
The Lamb is all the glory 

Of Immanuel's land. 



MAY 1: MORNING. 

And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the 
ground ; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring 
and grow up, he knoweth not how. — Mark iv., 26, 27. 

Men suppose that when they are converted, or born again, 
they can, by reading or prayer, inherit all the graces ready 
made. When they want hope, or faith, or love, or any of the 
various moral powers, they suppose that they can obtain them 
by fasting for them, and reading for them, and praying for 
them, and they seek them in that way ; whereas, when God 
produces these graces, he produces them* through the actual 
experience of daily life. A woman prays for patience, and God 
sends her a servant, that she may have an opportunity to ex- 
ercise it. A mother prays for faith, and God takes away her 
highest delight. Her heart's love and her soul's joy are del- 
uged, and she says, " God has ransacked me, and left me noth- 
ing." And God says, "It is that I might give you the neces- 
sity for faith, and the opportunity of exercising it, that I have 
done this." When God works out perseverance in men, he 
puts them in circumstances where they require perseverance. 
When God means to make a man's back strong, he puts a pack 
on it, and the man learns to bear it. A strong back was the 
thing he wanted, but he did not want to get it in just the way 
that God pleased to have him. 

Suppose a boy says to his father, " I want my arm to be as 
strong as Samson's." The father says, " It shall be so," and 
binds him out to a blacksmith. The boy did not like the hard 
work that he was obliged to perform ; but a strong arm was 



MA Y. 



199 



what he wanted, and in order to have it he was obliged to take 
the means necessary to obtain it. If a man wishes to have an 
athlete's muscle, he must go through an athlete's training in a 
gymnasium. He must practice temperate habits, and take se- 
vere exercise, and at last his object will be attained. 

So it is in respect to the Christian graces. God takes the 
minds of men, and places them in ten thousand relations of 
life, which are so many departments of his primary school — 
this world. He takes men and puts them into this or that de- 
partment, according to their aptitudes, and assigns them their 
appropriate lessons. Little by little they unfold, and by-and- 
by they attain to perfection in each of the Christian graces. 

Teach thou our weak and wandering hearts 

Aright to read thy way — 
That thou with loving hand dost trace 

Our history every day. 

Then every thorny crown of care, 

Worn well in patience now, 
Shall grow a glorious diadem 

Upon the faithful brow. 



MAY 1: EVENING. 
Of myself I will not glory; but in mino infirmities. — 2 Cor. xii., 5. 

While Fort Moultrie was held by seventy men through 
more than seventy days, when nobody threatened to take it, 
and nobody wanted to take it, nothing was said about the brav- 
ery of these men ; but when trouble came, and the illustrious 
seventy threw themselves into Sumter, and then, looking into 
the eyes of the black-mouthed cannon that surrounded them 
on every side, stood up and held their own against the three 
thousand that threatened to take them, and against the whole 
state that was bent on their overthrow, the whole nation rose 
up and said, " That is brave ! that is noble !" 

Now when a man stands in the midst of prosperity, and noth- 
ing interferes with him, what chance is there for him to display 
Christian courage or manliness ? But when trouble comes, and 
he is exposed to assaults from every direction, then there is a 
chance for him to display these qualities ; and if he says, " I 
will stand my ground and endure to the end," every body ad- 
mires his heroism. 



200 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

The endurance of troubles that have been brought upon us 
is a more clear illustration of God's work, and so is a more sig- 
nificant token of his power, and honor, and glory, than the mere 
alleviation and taking away of trouble. The fewer instruments 
or means a man has, the more illustrious is that genius by which 
he brings about great results. The more you are limited, hum- 
bled, reduced, if you are yet able to bear the trouble that is 
put upon you, the more apparent is it to mankind that there is 
God in you. 



MAT 2: MORNING. 
Learn of me. — Matt, xi., 29. 
Christ did not demand the full type of Christian experi- 
ence as a condition of acceptance. He set the ideal before 
men ; and then he accepted, or promised to accept, every one 
who would sincerely strive after that ideal, no matter at what 
point he stood, from the highest endowment of genius down to 
the very child himself. Every man who, looking toward this 
ideal of purity, and peace, and divinity in his soul, says, " I will 
follow after it ;" every man who, pointing toward this ideal, 
says, " I accept this life, and I will try to realize it" — every such 
man, no matter how slowly he advances, no matter how imper- 
fectly he lives, has the sympathy of Christ. Of all strivers in 
that direction, he says, " They shall be mine." He calls them 
his scholars. And those who go to school, or are willing to go 
to school to Christ, to learn by what steps they may be good ; 
those who are willing to go to this university of experience ; 
those who are seeking for this graduating power of Christian- 
ity, however limited may be their attainments, their knowl- 
edge, their victories, are pupils. If a man has gone into that 
school sincerely to learn, and is willing to practice what he 
learns, he is accepted of God. 

MAT 2: EVENING. 

He hath said in his heart, I shall not he moved ; for I shall never he in ad- 
versity. — Psalm x.,6. 

The experience of every fresh mourner is, "I knew that Death 



MAY. 



201 



was in the world, but I never thought that my beloved could 
die." Every one that conies to the grave says, coming, " I 
never thought that I should bury my heart here." Though 
from the beginning of the world it hath been so ; though the 
ocean itself would be overflowed if the drops of sorrow, unex- 
pected, that have flowed should be gathered together and rolled 
into its deep places ; though the life of man, without an excep- 
tion, has been taken away in the midst of his expectations, and 
dashed with sorrow, yet no man learns the lesson taught by 
these facts, and every man lays out his paradise afresh, and 
runs the furrow of execution around about it, and marks out 
its alleys and beds, and plants flowers and fruits, and pultures 
them with a love that sees no change and expects no sorrow. 

-A plow is coming from the far end of a long field, and a daisy 
stands nodding, and full of dew-dimples. That furrow is sure 
to strike the daisy. It casts its shadow as gayly, and exhales 
its gentle breath as freely, and stands as simple, and radiant, 
and expectant as ever ; and yet that crushing furrow, which is 
turning and turning others in its course, is drawing near, and 
in a moment it whirls the heedless flower with sudden reversal 
under the sod. 

And as is the daisy, with no power of thought, so are ten 
thousand thinking, sentient flowers of life, blossoming in places 
of peril, and yet thinking that no furrow of disaster is running 
in toward them — that no iron plow of trouble is about to over- 
turn them. Sometimes it dimly dawns upon us, when we see 
other men's mischiefs and wrongs, that we are in the same cat- 
egory with them, and that perhaps the storms which have over- 
taken them will overtake us also. But it is only for a moment, 
for we are artful to cover the ear, and not listen to the voice 
that warns us of our danger. 



MAY 3: MORNING. 

For we walk by faith, not by sight. — 2 Cor. v., 7. 

It is that which is invisible that enables us to control the 

circumstances and conditions which belong to us in this life, 

and to go through it unscathed, unharmed, and with great cour- 



202 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

age. We grow rich, and strong, and joyful just in proportion 
as our treasures consist of noble thoughts, of holy feelings, of 
wrestlings with God in communion. Blessed are they, then, 
who can say as said the apostle, " We walk by faith, not by 
sight." And yet how few there are of such. God, through 
his Word, is constantly proclaiming, " I will never leave you 
nor forsake you ; and yet men on every hand are crying out, 
" Lord, why hast thou left me and forsaken me ?" They live 
by sight ; and when the natural has failed them, all has failed 
them. Do you live by faith in God, by the promises of the 
Savior, by the influences of the Holy Spirit ? If you do, you 
are blessed indeed. He that can live by the invisible, as reveal- 
ed by the Word of God, is prepared for whatever may await 
him in this world, whether it be weal or woe. 

What though mortal powers may falter ? 

Earthly plans and prospects fail ? 
With a heaven-born hope which entereth 

E'en to that within the veil, 
All is light, all is light ! 

What though all my future pathway 

Be from mortal sight concealed ? 
With the love of Jesus glowing, 

As it lies to faith revealed, 
All is light, all is light ! 



MAYZx EVENING. 

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his 
only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. — 1 John 
iv.,9. 

The grandest deeds in this world are the loving condescen- 
sions of great natures to the help of weak ones. No crown so 
becomes a king as the service of low and suffering natures by 
those that are high and happy. The magnanimity of love, the 
patience of love, the endless gifts of all fruitful love — these are 
fitter to reveal the grandeur of God than thrones, and orbs, and 
the whole stellar universe. That he built the world, that he 
sustained it — this gives us a thought of God by the outside. 
That he suffered for it, that he gave his life for it — this shows 
us God within. Now we see the heart and feel the disposition. 



203 



MAYA: MORNING. 

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in 
the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in 
the world. — Phil. ii. , 15. 

It is not hard for a man to die for Christ, nor for his faith, 
nor for his party. It is ten thousand times harder to live right 
than to die right. It is not difficult for a man to give his life 
up through the chamber of death. But to give your life while 
you hold it — yes, and to use it so that it is a perpetual benefac- 
tion all through — that is hard, and that is the special Christian 
duty. To live in such a way that, as from the stars by night 
and from the sun by day, light and guidance are issuing, so 
from you shall proceed an influence that comforts, cheers, in- 
structs, and alleviates the troubles and sufferings of life — this 
is a true following of the Lord Jesus .Christ. 



MAY 4: EVENING. 

For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee. For I will restore health 
unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord. — Jer. xxx. , 11, 17. 

It is not because God is indifferent to moral qualities that he 
loves sinners. His love is medicinal. His life is a world-nurs- 
ing life. He cleanses whom he loves that he may love yet 
more. God's nature is infinitely healing and cleansing. They 
that are brought in contact with the divine heart feel it by the 
growth that instantly begins in them. And his being is so ca- 
pacious that all .the want of all sinful creatures, through end- 
less ages, neither exhausts nor wearies him. Ten thousand ar- 
mies might bathe in the ocean, and neither sully its purity nor 
exhaust its cleansing power. But the ocean is but a cup by 
the side of God's heart. Realms and orbs may bathe and rise 
into purity. No words will ever hint or dimly paint the height, 
and depth, and length, and breadth of the love of Christ. It is 
love that pours, endless and spontaneous, just as sunlight does 
— simply because God is love. By the side of Christ, a moth- 
er's love, that on earth shines high above all other, as a star 
above night-candles, is in comparison like those glimmering, 



204 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

expiring stars when the sun shines them into radiant eclipse. 
In the bosom of such a God there is salvation for every one 
that will trust him. As the mother takes the new-born babe, 
that can do nothing but cry, and folds it in her bosom, there to 
find its food, its warmth, its raiment, its every thing, so God 
takes needy souls, that can only cry out, " God be merciful to 
me, a sinner," and wraps them up in the bosom of his love, there 
to find their food, their raiment, their all. 

I ask if thou canst love me still, God ? 

They say thou canst not love so weak a thing — 
One that was angered by a. Father's rod, 

One that hath wayward and rebellious been, 

Unstable, thankless, prone to every sin. 
Thou knowest all — yet whither shall I go 
To leave my sins, and with them leave my woe, 
Except to thee, who only help canst bring, 
And bid me live thy pardoning love to sing ? 
I come ; my sinful thoughts have vexed me long ; 
And I am weak, but thou, my God, art strong. 
I lay my head upon thy loving heart, 
I hide beneath the shelter of thy wing, 
And, helpless, to my Father's love I cling. 



MAY 5: MORNING. 
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with 
healing in his wings. — Mai. iv., 2. 

When", after a long, frigid, barren winter, the spring comes 
and loves the earth a little while, how wondrous is the change 
that takes place. When the month of May comes, and sits 
upon the North as a bird upon her nest, there come forth from 
under its feathers sounds of new life. The forest echoes with 
the voices of joyous songsters ; the roots start; the grass grows ; 
the air smells sweet ; all things are full of richness and beauty. 
Just so it is when spring comes to the soul ; when the heart is 
touched with the fructifying power of love. How instantly, 
under such circumstances, does there grow up beauty, and fit- 
ness, and satisfaction. When it is human heart that touches 
human heart, what a wondrous spring it brings — what flowers 
and promises of fruit ; but oh ! when it is the heart of God that 
brings spring to our hearts ; when it is the heart of God that 
sets every root, and every bud, and every leaf in us a-growing, 
how wondrous is the beauty that is evoked — how wondrous is 



MAY. 205 

the promise of fruit that is held out ! And when we have once 
loved Christ- with all our heart and soul, and mind and strength, 
and are able to say, " To do thy will is my meat and my drink," 
we have achieved the victory ; we have overcome all adversa- 
ries ; we have found the way that is cast up, on which the ran- 
somed of the Lord are to return and walk, with songs, and ev- 
erlasting joy upon their heads. 

Ice lay upon my heart — 

Ice-fetters still and strong, 
When the living spring gushed forth 

And filled my soul with song. 

That Summer shall not fade ; 

That Sun it setteth never ; 
The fountain in my heart 

Springs full and fresh forever. 



MAT 5: EVENING. 
Thy gentleness hath made me great. — 2 Sam. xxii., 36. 

God's forgiveness is unspeakably generous, and, if I may so 
say, unspeakably more fine, delicate, and full of strange gentle- 
ness than ours. I believe the more we come to know the dis- 
position of Almighty God, the more we shall find in it, in mag- 
nitude and power, those traits which we call, among men, rare 
in their excellence. And when God undertakes for us, if we 
have thrown ourselves upon his mercy, and we have really 
meant to be his, and are really striving to be his, I believe that 
his feeling toward us transcends that of the tenderest love, 
of the most generous parentage, of the most romantic friend- 
ship in men ; that he is not less than men in these emotions of 
friendship and of generosity in it, but transcendently more ; 
that in him they spread over a broader ground, and take on a 
more wondrous experience. And instead of being likely to 
overestimate the volume of the divine goodness and mercy to- 
ward those who fear him, we are always under the mark. "We 
always think less of God, and more meanly of the divine nature 
than we ought to do. 

To every one who does not mean to sin, though he oft falls 
by temptation into it ; to every one who is seeking, from day 
to day, as in the sight of God, to live a truly Christian life — to 
all such there are held out, in the New Testament, the most 



206 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

encouraging views of God's mercy, gentleness, and forbearance. 
They wait on us always and every where. 



MAYS: MORNING. 

In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall 
be sought for, and there shall be none ; and the sins of Judah, and they shall 
not be found ; for I will pardon them whom I reserve. — Jer. L, 20. 

I KECOLLfccr, when a lad, and while attending a classical in- 
stitute in the vicinity of Mount Pleasant, sitting on an elevation 
of that mountain, and watching a storm as it came up the val- 
ley. The heavens were filled with blackness, and the earth 
was shaken by the voice of thunder. It seemed as though that 
fair landscape was utterly changed, and its beauty gone never 
to return. But the storm swept on, and passed out of the val- 
ley ; and if I had sat in the same place on the following day, 
and said, " Where is that terrible storm, with all its terrible 
blackness ?" the grass would have said, " Part of it is in me ;" 
and the daisy would have said, " Part of it is in me ;" and the 
rose would have said, " Part of it is in me ;" and the fruits and 
flowers, and every thing that grows out of the ground would 
have said, " Part of that storm is incandescent in me." And 
if you ask what becomes of the sins that we commit after we 
become Christians, I reply that God, by the power of his love, 
transforms them into sovereign blessings, and mercies, and 
graces. That is what becomes of them. 

It is God's nature not to punish — though there is justice and 
punishment for the incorrigibly sinful — but to forgive. And 
where there is in a soul any sprouting upward, any yearning 
and growing toward the bright ideal of truth and right, God's 
nature is not avenging, but remedial, healing, fostering. It is 
to the human heart what sunshine is to the plant, warming and 
stimulating it. It is the nature of God not only to hold men 
to account for sins persisted in, but to cleanse away from the 
book of his remembrance sins forgiven. And by his grace it 
is that we are saved. 



MAY. 207 



MAYQ: EVENING. 

Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me ; nevertheless, not my 
will, but thine be done. — Luke xxii., 42. 

It is one thing to say " Thy will be done" theoretically, and 
another thing to say it practically. How many of you dare 
to-night to go to the cradle where sleeps your child that you 
adore, and that is dearer to you than the apple of your eye, 
and lay your hand on its head, and say to God, " Thy will he 
done, not mine?" The child is consecrated. It is offered as 
a sacrifice. God may take you at your word. Draw back the 
hand, and recall the sentence, unless you mean what you say. 
What do you love most in this world ? Is there one thing that 
you love more than any other ? Do you dare to go, in the 
darkness of this night, into the presence of God, and, taking 
that love, hold it up before him, and say, " Thy will be done, 
and not mine ?" If there is any one, any purpose, any pleas- 
ure, any ambition, any thing that you do not dare to take into 
the presence of God, saying, " Thy will be done, and not mine," 
then God says to you, " You are not worthy of me." 

If thou shouldst call me to resign 
What most I prize, it ne'er was mine ; 
I only yield thee what was thine — 
"Thy will be done!" 

Renew my will from day to day — 
Blend it with thine, and take away 
All that now makes it hard to say 
"Thy will be done!" 



MAY 7: MORNING. 
Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord. — isa. lviii., 14. 
All that part of our life which is exercised through the six 
days of the week, and taxed by strife, is to have rest on Sunday. 
Our strife of soul and strife of body, our working thoughts and 
our working members, are all of them to have that rest which 
comes from no longer working. This is the lower form of its 
benefit. We are, on that day, by giving this rest to the lower 
nature, to give enjoyment and inspiration, and a chauce for de- 



208 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

veloprnent to that part of our nature which is usually over- 
borne during the week by secular affairs, and which ought to 
have some sjDecial time to itself for culture and development. 
The object of Sunday is to say to that in men which is secular 
and animal, " Rest ;" and to that which is intellectual, and 
moral, and social, " Grow." Nevertheless, the general effect of 
the Sabbath-day is not to be burdensome. It is not to be a re- 
stricted day. It is not to be a day of seclusion. It is not to 
be a day in which a man is to afflict his soul. It is to be a day 
whose impression on the whole, whose average and general ef- 
fect, shall be such on every man that he shall feel that it is a de- 
light, that it is honorable, and that it is memorable. 

And we fondly pause to look 
Where, in some daily-handled hook, 
Approval's well-known tokens stand, 
Traced by some dear and thoughtful hand. 

Even so there shines one day in seven 
Bright with the special mark of Heaven, 
That we with love and praise may dwell 
On him who loveth us so well. 



MAT 7: EVENING. 
Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus. — Phil, iii., 13, 14. 

Do not be deceived by the descriptions that are sometimes 
given of wisdom's ways. They are ways of pleasantness, and 
they are paths of peace. But do not think that to be a Chris- 
tian is to walk in a sphere of morality only slightly advanced 
beyond that in which you have been walking in past days. A 
true Christian is one that takes the character of Christ, the law 
of God, as his model, and attempts to conform his disposition 
thereto, whatever that disposition may be. The conflict may 
be a long one. In some persons it is a conflict which has a 
series of progressive victories. To-day it is a victory in one 
point, and to-morrow it is a victory in another point. It is al- 
ways attaining ; so that, with the apostle, the true Christian 
can say, " Not as though I had already attained ;" I have not 
subdued every faculty and every sentiment ; I have not brought 
all my powers to love spontaneously and intensely the thing 
which is just, and true, and pure, and right, and noble, and best ; 



MAT. 



209 



I have not yet become such a Christian that I feed upon the 
bread of heaven ; but, " forgetting those things which are be- 
hind, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus." This is a true Christian life. 



MAY 8: MORNING. 
Fear not ; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. 
—2 Kings vi., 16. 

Geeat are the forces that are ready to pull you down ; but 
if you did but know it, greater are they that are for you than 
are they that are against you. God has made the course of 
nature and of human society such that righteousness profits in 
the end better than wickedness. Give your heart to God. 
Love him. Then, living in the daily commerce of thought 
with God, and in the commerce of your fellow-men, animated 
by the spirit of love, ere long habits will be formed, and those 
habits will become armors of offense and defense ; and at last, 
some years having passed, it will be more easy for you to be 
true, and just, and honest, and upright, and faithful, than not 
to be. Their opposites will become discords — moral discords. 
And when once you are established, and every bone is hardened, 
and every muscle is knit firmly, in this better way, then, wheth- 
er you are rich or poor, life will have been saved. You can not 
lose happiness, you that are at peade with God and at peace 
with your fellow-men, as you can not have happiness if you 
are in opposition to God and your fellow-men. 

MAY 8: EVENING. 

The heart kncweth his own bitterness. — Prov. xiv., 10. 

• 
The sorrows that are the most difficult to bear are sorrows 
that are smothered, and that burn smouldering slowly within. 
And there is no place like the closet for such sorrows. Some- 
times, when I read the sad stories in the papers, I wish I could 
never hear of any more suffering. I look out on the world, and 
I marvel at God's patience. I think none but a God could en- 
dure it. It wears me out, it almost discourages me, to see how 
much of sorrow and suffering there is in the world. And when 
O 



210 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

I look upon all the suffering of men, I say, " Oh that they had 
a refuge for their suffering. Oh that prayer meant to them 
what it means to me. Oh that they, like me, had a place 
where they could cast off their burden, and find courage and 
strength of soul, and, above all, get calmness, and serenity, and 
heart-rest." 



MAT 9: MORNING. 

Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. — 
2 Peter \\\., IS. 

To increase in the knowledge of God is distinctly command- 
ed, not in this passage alone, but in very many. The progress 
of the mind in the knowledge of scientific truth depends very 
much upon the exercise of the senses upon matter, but the 
growth of knowledge in moral truth depends upon the exer- 
cise of moral feelings. While sense is the source of physical 
or scientific knowledge, disposition is the source of the knowl- 
edge of moral truth. Growth in the knowledge of a divine 
Being unites both of these. That is to say, there is a revela- 
tion of God in the natural world, and there is also a revelation 
of God in society and in the social nature of man. But as the 
Lord Jesus Christ is a representation of divine nature in its 
moral aspects chiefly, rather than in its forensic or executive 
elements, it is to be learned by moral growth in ourselves more 
than in any other way. Hence the text is, " Grow in grace" 
as if it were in that way only that you could grow " in the 
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Grace is 
the schoolmaster of knowledge. 

** MAY 9: EVENING. 

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, 
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be 
blessed in his deed.— James i., 25. 

Do not shrink back when you find, in the providence of God, 
that cares, and fears, and troubles are upon you ; when you find 
yourself environed by those daily struggles which are incident 
to your social organization. Mother, whose household is heavier 



MAT. 211 

than you can bear, whose children are a burden that you can not 
carry — who in sickness, in nervous weakness, in despondency 
and discouragement, are trying to live faithful to your husband, 
faithful to your children, faithful to your name and to yourself 
— does it seem to you every day as though the spirit of life 
would be crushed out of you ? You want to do right, but you 
say, "The cloud is evermore over me, and life is a burden; and 
if it were not for my children I would not care to live." How 
many are there — oh, sad commentary on life ! — who say, "If it 
were not for one and another I would be willing to die ?" Right 
in the midst of life, in the midst of youth, and in the plenitude 
of years, how many there are whose fears, and cares, and sor- 
rows, and rasping experiences are such that they would die if 
they could. 

Are you willing to take those cares and those fears which 
God has put upon you as a yoke and as a burden, and to stand 
in them, and go to Christ and say, " Lord Jesus, I accept all 
these. Thou hast said, 'Come to me through cares and through 
burdens,' and I have come ; and I shall die if there is not some 
help sent to me." Ah! the dark closet, how often does it prove 
to be the gate of heaven. 

Grant me the grace, 
Whilst Martha's busy offices demand 
My lesser care, to cast my better thoughts 
Down at thy feet — to sit with Mary there, 
And listen to thy words of truth and love. 
Teach me, with mind unruffled and serene, 
To meet the hourly incidents of life, 
And let the tones of gentle patience lend 
Their soft sweet music to my lightest word. 
Oh ! may I bear in mind that from the roots 
Of withered and neglected duties spring 
The rankest sin- weeds which infest the heart ; 
That wisdom infinite has placed me here 
To work thy will, watched o'er by angels' eyes, 
Cherished and cared for, not alone by those 
Whom thou hast given to tread life's path with me, 
But with a love beyond all human ken, 
By thee, on whom my hopes of heaven depend, 
My Lord, my God, my Savior, and my Friend. 



212 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



MAT 10: MORNING. 
Unto thee, Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready 
to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. — Psalm 
lxxxvi., 4, 5. 

Men ask, "Why is it that we have a right to go to the Lord 
Jesus Christ and ask him for blessings ?" The reason is, that 
"it is more blessed to give than to receive." He said it out of 
his own experience. And it is a thousand times more blessed 
for God to give than for man ; for we give with a spark in our 
natures, and he gives with a whole sun in his nature. What 
must be the impulse of generosity in the bosom of God, who 
measures himself by infinities, and who, by searching, can never 
be found out. 

When, therefore, there are troubles that spring out of infe- 
licities of disposition, and unregulated thoughts, and fancies, 
and feelings that defy our volition, and elude our watchfulness, 
and are turning against us with a kind of Bedouin-Arab fight, 
firing when they retreat as well as when they advance, we 
have a right to go to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, " Thou 
hast given thine own life a pledge of love ; art thou not willing 
to give the help I need, that is so much less ?" On this foun- 
dation confidence may be built up. 



MAY 10: EVENING. 
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. — Rev. iL, 11. 

A man says, " I have certain passions, and inbred sins, and 
dispositions that I know I can not overcome." You can not 
overcome them as long as you pamper them. You can not as 
long as you excuse them. Just as long as you hide behind 
them, and shelter yourself from those vivific influences by 
which alone the soul can rise to its higher life and to its su- 
pernal nature, you can not do these things. You can not do 
them so long as you hold yourself aloof. No man overcomes 
difficulties by cowardice. 

But there is no passion, and there are no lusts, and there is 
no stature of pride, and there is no frivolity of vanity, and there 
is no wide, diffusive selfishness, which can not be overcome by 



MAY. 213 

the grace of God, if once a man will enter the warfare; but it 
is to be a warfare, and it is to be begun. It will never come to 
a man as a completed victory, but it will come to him, if he be 
victor at all, when he has earned it at the point of his spear and 
by the edge of his sword. 



MAY 11: MORNING. 

With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men : knowing that 
whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. 

— Eph.es. vi., 7, 8. 

We are said to be followers of Christ. We follow him in 
his glory and exaltation. But there were other periods of 
Christ's life besides days of exaltation and glory ; there were 
other periods of Christ's life besides the day of transfiguration 
and the day of resurrection. There was a time when he had 
not a place to lay his head. Where are the disciples of Christ 
without a place to lay their head ? He had not where to go 
for food. Where are the disciples of Christ who hunger ? He 
was the pensioner of women. Where are the men who are rid- 
den by the stress of poverty ? Where are those that want to 
volunteer in the ranks of Christ, and that are willing to serve 
him in any position, if he will only receive them at all ? 

At one time, when the boys were flocking into an Indiana 
regiment, there came a lad, who was scarce fifteen years of age, 
to have his name put down. He strove, in all the companies, 
and by various devices, to get accepted ; and at last he says, 
"Let me go as a drummer." No, they had their full comple- 
ment of drummers. " Let me go as something." " You can not 
do any thing." " Yes, I can ; when the men fight I can carry 
water to the wounded soldiers." And he went to carry water 
to the wounded. Ah ! that was the right spirit. He could 
not fight nor perform music, but he could carry water to the 
wounded. How many of us are saying, " Lord, put me to the 
lowest work if thou wilt, only take me into thy service." 

Since service is the highest lot, 

And all are in one Body bound, 
In all the world the place is not 

Which may not with this bliss be crowned. 



214 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

The poorest may enrich this feast ; 

Not one lives only to receive, 
But renders through the hands of Christ 

Richer returns than man can give. 

The little child, in trustful glee, 

With love and gladness brimming o'er, 

Many a cup of ministry 

May for the weary veteran pour. 



MAY 11: EVENING. 
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are 
changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the 
Lord.— 2 Cor. iii., 18. 

"We are all planted here. We are working out from our ma- 
terial conditions as a seed works out from under the soil. We 
are just beginning with the very tips, as it were, of our facul- 
ties to come up into the pure sunlight. But all that we have 
of experience in this world is still obscure, sub-mundane, sub- 
terranean ; and we shall learn, really and fully, when we see 
him as he is, and are like him. With the utmost of certainties, 
we still are surrounded by uncertainties. Knowledge is rude 
and imperfect here. We are voyagers exploring new seas, and 
edging along new coasts and continents. Life is something 
sublime, and something grander than men think, who only grind 
and eat their daily bread, and know no difference between 
themselves and the beasts that perish. We are beginners. We 
are little children, and petitioners for liberty to come to our 
manhood, surrounded by more invisible things than there are 
things visible, and under mightier influences supernal than are 
the influences actual and physical, and are holding on our way 
to that other state of being. Man is more than man knows. 
Life is grander than it shows itself to be. Every man that 
stands and looks back from the other life to see what was the 
importance of this, and to measure it by its results there, will 
be filled with amazement that he should have lived so blind, 
and so unknowing, in the midst of so grand an arrangement of 
divine Providence. 

Grafted in thee, by grace alone 

In growth I daily rise, 
And, springing up from thee, the Vine, 

My top shall reach the skies. 



215 



MAY 12: MORNING. 

The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took, and hid in 
three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. — Matt, xiii., 33. 

It is said that there must be a distinction between Christians 
and the world. If there is to be a distinction, it should be in 
this: that he is more generous ; that he is more just. The dis- 
tinction is to be one of a higher purity, a sweeter love, a nobler 
manhood ; and if you have not that, you have no right to put 
a distinction between yourself and another man on the ground 
that you belong to a Church and he does not. External badges 
of distinction are worse than useless, They are deceptive. 
They are mischievous. There ought to be a difference between 
men of the world and Christian men. And yet, when the train- 
ing of Christian families and the training of Christian institu- 
tions has so affected law and public sentiment that men, by 
outside active experience, are reared up externally to a high 
Christian propriety and morality, then ordinary men and Chris- 
tian men will not have any marked external difference. Cer- 
tainly there will be no discrimination against the Christian life 
as though it were a less free or a less liberal life. " The earth 
is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." Whatever any man 
on earth who is not a Christian has a right to do innocently 
and purely, that, for a higher reason, the Christian man has a 
right to do, because he stands nearer to God than any body 
else. A Christian has a right to all innocent pleasure, to all 
industry, to all generous rivalry, and to all modest ambition. 
A Christian is an actor in the world that now is in a larger 
and nobler way than any other one can be. Looking at him 
externally only, you would hardly know that there was any 
difference between him and an ordinary good citizen. The dif- 
ference, however, is very great, assuming that he is not merely 
a professed Christian, but a real one. The difference is in that 
which does not appear. It is in that which lies behind con- 
duct. It is in the hidden life. 



216 3I0HNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



MAY 12: EVENING. 

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night 
in his temple ; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun 
light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the 
throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters ; 
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.— i^y. vii., 15-17. 

No man can guard himself against suffering in a world that 
is sin-smitten and shrouded with troubles; in a world where 
God educates men by trials and afflictions ; in a world where 
there is an endless funeral march, and where sorrow beats the 
drum to which all men in the procession keep step. In such a 
world men must suffer, and suffer to the end. 

But oh, the cleansing of suffering ! God grant that we may- 
have the cleansing, and not the baptism alone. God grant that 
there may be such a cleansing that by-and-by, in some future 
world, another revelator shall stand and see you and yours 
shouting in the throng of ineffable glory, and, being asked 
" Who are these, and whence came they ?" shall say of them 
and you, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, 
and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb." 

Through sorrow and through loss, by toil and prayer, 
Saints won the starry crowns which now they wear, 
And, by the bitter ministry of pain, 
Grievous and harsh, but oh ! not sent in vain, 
Found their eternal gain. 

If it be ours, like them, to suffer loss, 
Give grace, as unto them, to bear our cross, 
Till, victors over each besetting sin, 
We, too, thy perfect peace shall enter in, 
And crowns of glory win. 



MAY tt: MORNING. 

If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. — Mark 
ix., 23. 

In this day, when there is so much done to uproot our confi- 
dence in Christ, when so many are departing from the faith 
and falling into a lower form of belief, it is transcendently im- 



MAY. 217 

portant that those who know that their Redeemer liveth, and 
know it by the sense of joy and peace which he has created in 
their souls, should speak of God's work in them. And it is 
pre-eminently desirable that the power of this hidden life 
should be made to stand over against the cold, disorganizing, 
dividing skepticisms which are now coming in upon the world. 
If you want more influence and power, you must enter more 
into the hidden life of Christ. It is only so that you can have 
converting power, and achieve success in your efforts to rescue, 
the souls of men. You can not carry men any farther along 
than you have gone in your own experience. 

MAY Id: EVENING. 

Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more ; but ye see me.— John 
xiv., 19. 

This is our faith and our hope : Jesus is risen, and is our 
Savior — our personal Savior. He loves us more than we love 
ourselves. He understands us better than a mother under- 
stands the babe that she nourishes. He knows all our ail- 
ments. He knows our sins and every suggestion of the devil, 
and he will shield us. So long as that voice sounds from the 
heavens, " Because I live ye shall live also," so long we have 
presage and assurance of final victory. "We take up our cross 
and follow our Savior. What is the cross since Christ left it? 
No longer a burden, but rather a staff and a stay to us. No 
longer is there death in it, but life eternal ; no longer wound- 
ing, and shame, and disgrace, but honor, and influence, and 
glory, and immortality. 

To them the cross, with all its shame, 

With all its grace, is given ; 
Their name — an everlasting name ; 

Their joy — the joy of heaven. 

To them the cross is life and health, 

Though shame and death to him ; 
His people's hope, his people's wealth, 

Their everlasting theme. 



2 1 S MORNING AND EVENING EXER CISES. 



MAY 14: MORNING. 

Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ— Philip- 
pians i., 27. 

There are some persons who are naturally slow of feeling; 
persons in whom caution is strong; persons in whom reason 
predominates over feeling. If such persons will determine to 
obey the laws of the Savior, to imitate his disposition, to carry 
his spirit, to work out in life just what he worked out in his life, 
two results will follow. First, Christian character follows ; and, 
second, it is a fact, that if you perform the actions that spring 
from a certain feeling, the feeling itself will come by-and-by. 
You can develop conduct from feeling, and you can also de- 
velop feeling from conduct. The man who begins to imitate 
Christ reverently, child-likely, and continuously, will by-and-by 
begin to feel that he has the emotion of love as well as the fruit 
of love. The fruit is more important, the emotion being latent 
in the first instance, developing itself only as -a motive pressing 
him to right thought, right feeling, and right conduct. By a 
patient continuance in well-doing the emotion will grow, so 
that by-and-by the man who had only emotional life and con- 
duct will begin to feel that while he is feeling as a Christian, 
he should also begin to live as a Christian. 

Sometimes the light surprises a Christian as he sings. Some- 
times a man who has long been living in the performance of 
Christian duty begins to have intuitions, revelations, as it were, 
of his higher nature. And this is the safer way. 

MAYU: EVENING. 

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your 
hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. — Phil, iv., 7. 

Do you remember what, in his last interview with his disci- 
ples, in that prolonged love-feast which preceded his - crucifixion, 
when the cloud was on him, when the great eclipse began to 
show itself, and the shadow was falling, and he was uttering 
his last words to them, and preparing them with all zeal to be 
scattered like sheep without a shepherd — do you remember 



MAY. 



219 



what in that hour was the state of mind of Christ ? He says, 
"My peace I give unto you." In that hour of tempest, and 
darkness, and coming anguish, while there was agitation every 
where else, in the heart of Christ there was peace — peace 
enough not only for his own wants, but for the wants of his 
dear disciples. And when you think of Christ as a man of sor- 
rows and acquainted with grief, think also that he gave an ex- 
emplification of the power of the soul to overcome these things. 

Who shall hush the weary spirit's chiding ? 

Who the aching void within shall fill ? 
Who shall whisper of a peace abiding, 

And each surging billow calmly still ? 

Only he'whose wounded heart was broken 
With the bitter cross and thorny crown ; 

Whose dear love glad words of joy had spoken, 
Who his life for us laid meekly down. 

Blessed Healer ! all our burdens lighten ; 

Give us peace, thine own sweet peace, we pray ; 
T£eep us near thee till the morn shall brighten, 

And all mists and shadows flee away. 



MAY 15: MOENMG. 

Quench not the Spirit.— 1 Thess. v., 19. 

It may be asked, "How shall we secure the divine help?" 
We are responsible, though God is working with us, for right 
thinking, for right willing, and for right and wise action. We 
have no right to despise customs, nor those normal processes 
by which experience has taught society best to develop itself, 
nor natural laws, nor any of that vast economy by which God, 
through his providence, is stimulating development in the nat- 
ural, the social, and the moral world. " How, then, are you go- 
ing to secure the divine help to stimulate us to judge right, to 
think right, and to do right ?" By living in right dispositions ; 
by keeping in all those moral channels through which divine 
purity flows, if it comes at all to you ; by seeking rational ends ; 
by being in the current of providence ; by cultivating sensibil- 
ity to high and pure moral impressions. In all these ways. 

In all the relations of life maintain equity, and purity, and 
integrity, and then keep your moral sentiments and your na- 
ture so open to righteousness, to purity, to aspiration, to love, 



220 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

to faith, to joy, to the very Spirit of God, that you shall receive 
easily the ingress of God's Spirit as it flows abroad and fills the 
whole universe. 



MAT 15: EVENING. 
And Enoch walked with God.— Gen. v., 24. 

God makes himself, by the power of the Holy Ghost, a guest, 
and he abides in the souls of those who know how to accept 
him. There is such a thing as communion with Christ, as one 
speaketh to a friend, face to face. There is a banqueting-house 
where he sits down with those who are his "disciples. He is 
with them in their solitary hours. In the solitude of Western 
forests I have lifted psalms and hymns to God, and have had 
communion with him such as I never had in the sanctuary. 
There is many a man on the lonely watch at sea ; there is many 
a solitary watcher on the land ; there is many a one in the re- 
cesses of business ; there is many a one in the toil, and fatigue, 
and vexation of the week-day, or in the broad calm of the Sab- 
bath, that has this soul-communion with Christ. It is the ban- 
quet of love. What words can describe it ? It is ineffable. 
It is full of glory — at times, of inexpressible glory. 

All those glancing thoughts ; all that sense of yearning ; all 
that lifting up of every thing in the soul that is unanalyzed 
and undefinable ; all that rising up of the spiritual nature un- 
der the strong drawings of God's very presence ; all that peace 
which passeth understanding, and which God knows how to 
rain down into the soul when he comes near, and puts his arms 
about you, and takes you into his very bosom, so that you can 
look up and say, in that rapturous moment, " Whom have I in 
heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire 
beside thee" — these are parts of the hidden life. And they are 
indeed poor followers of Christ who have never had those joy- 
ful experiences which proceed from the hidden life. That is a 
poor road for a man to travel in which he can not find a sunny 
spot in winter, or a shady spot in summer, where he may sit 
down and eat his food. That must be a savage country in 
which there are no resting-places. The soul's resting-places in 
this world are many. Yea, it must needs be that there are 



MAT. 



221 



many, when even a pile of stones is a pillar good enough for a 
child of God, sleeping thereon, to see angels ascending and de- 
scending between Him and heaven. 



MAY 16: MORNING. 
I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. — 
1 Cor. xiv. , 15. 

A Church who do not sing have hard sledding. Sleigh-rid- 
ing in winter, and no bells — think of it ! A Church who do 
not sing are like a spring without any birds, or like a garden 
without any flowers. Give me a singing Church. And in a 
Church where the Spirit of the Lord is, singing must break out, 
it seems to me. 

Not only in the church, in the household there ought to be 
a great deal more singing than there is. I do not believe there 
ever was a singing family that quarreled much. It is very 
hard to break away from a good song into a round quarrel; 
and if two people that have quarreled could be set over against 
each other, so that they could not get at each other, and made 
to take a hymn-book and sing, I think that by the time they had 
sung five verses they would feel pleasantly toward one another. 

Then, in private experience, there is a great deal of power in 
singing to control one's thoughts; to withdraw one from an 
overestimate of this world ; to comfort one's self in sorrow ; 
to cheer one's self in perplexity; to make one's self patient and 
long-suffering in adversity. If one only had a hundred or a 
thousand hymns in his memory, and with every changing mood 
he was accustomed to hum to himself some sweet descant of 
•experience, he would not easily be made unhappy, and he would 
not wander from the path of rectitude. For singing is the gold- 
en bow and arrow with which Satan would be smitten through 
and through, and temptations would be disarmed. 

MAY lb: EVENING. 

Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: 
the earth is full of thy riches.— Psalm civ., 24. 

1 have in my house a little sheet of paper on which there is 



222 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

a faint, pale, and not particularly skillful representation of a 
hyacinth. It is not half as beautiful as many other pictures I 
have, but I regard it as the most exquisite of them all. My 
mother painted it ; and I never see it that I do not think that 
her hand rested on it, and that her thought was concerned in 
its execution. 

Now, suppose you had such a conception of God that you 
never saw a flower, a tree, a cloud, or any natural object, that 
you did not instantly think, " My Father made it," what a nat- 
ural world would this become to you. How beautiful would 
the earth seem to you. How would you find that nature was 
a revelation of God, speaking as plainly as his written Word. 
And if you are alone, in solitude, without company, desolate in 
your circumstances, it is because you have not that inner sense 
of the divine love and care which it is your privilege to have, 
and which you ought to have. 

Why comes this fragrance on the summer breeze, 
The blended tribute of ten thousand flowers, 

To me, a frequent wanderer 'mid the trees 
That form these gay, yet solitary bowers ? 

One answer is around, beneath, above — 

The echo of the voice — that God is love ! 

"Why bursts such melody from tree and bush, 

The overflowing of each songster's heart, 
So filling mine that it can scarcely hush 

A while to listen, but would take its part ? 
'Tis but one song I hear where'er I rove, 
Though countless be the notes — that God is love ! 



MAT 17: MORNING. 

And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how 
they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. — Matt, vi., 28. 

This is the season of the year when, if ever, one must needs 
have his senses attracted. The peach-trees are holding up their 
silent lessons in pink; the cherry-trees and the pear-trees are 
holding up "their silent lessons in white; the apple-trees are 
holding up their silent lessons in both colors ; all the grass is 
full of germinant flowers; the grass is lifting up its hands, and 
clapping them for joy. The common birds are here — the sev- 
eral sparrows, the robins, the bluebirds, and the goldfinches, or 



MAY. 223 

yellow-birds. Even in the city yon can not but see the amaz- 
ing bounty of God ; and if you will step out toward the suburbs 
of the town — and you can, if you will but rise early enough, 
without any prejudice to your ordinary work or to your health 
— you will gain some idea of the boundlessness and profusion 
of that bounty, as exhibited by the flowers in the country. 
And whenever you see flowers, understand that there is a mean- 
ing in them, and remember that Chi'ist has said, with reference 
to them, " Consider." You have no right to pass by the small- 
est, the tiniest, the most inconspicuous flower, and say, " Oh, it 
is a little common flower." A common flower? It is God- 
opened, and God-built, and Christ has said respecting it, " Con- 
sider." Yes, there is a meaning in flowers. It is a precious 
meaning — one that you need, and one that will kindle up your 
life, and make your soul glow with radiance. Take it, and 
profit by it. 

Beautiful are the heralds 

That stand at Nature's door, 
Crying, " Oh traveler, enter in, 

And taste the Master's store!" 
One or the other always crying — 

In the voice of the summer hours, 
In the thunder of the winter storm, 

Or the song of the fresh spring flowers. 

Only, hefore thou enterest in, 

Upon the threshold fall, 
And pay the tribute of thy praise 

"To him who gives thee all." 
But they who never bent the knee 

Will smile at this my story, 
For, though they enter the temple gates, 

They know not the inner glory. 



MAT 17: EVENING. 

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that whence they 
speak against you as evil-doers, they may, by your good works, which they 
shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. — 1 Peter ii., 12. 

IsTo real conception of Christ is reproduced before men that 
they do not long to have the same thing in themselves. And 
out of this yearning comes aspiration, out of aspiration comes 
intuition, out of intuition comes realization, and oixt of reali- 
zation come conversion and sanctification, so that no man 
preaches so much and so effectually as the man that does not 



224 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

speak a word, but whose whole life is one revelation of the 
higher forms of Christian development. 

Oh mother ! because you are in the household, it does not 
follow that you are not also in the pulpit. There are these 
open pulpits; there are these domestic pulpits. The candle 
that is lit for your table in the cottage, and gives its light there 
first, shines out of the window also, and throws its rays far 
down the road, and the weary traveler sees them, and plucks 
up courage, and says, " There is succor at last !" and follows the 
light, and finds your house, and is rescued. And while you are 
giving yourself to your children in sweetness and love, and 
prayer and trust, a light shines down the road to those that 
have lost their way, and many a soul may be brought, by your 
example, home to Jesus. 

Do not be discouraged because you have not an ampler 
sphere of testimony. Live, love, trust, and wait, and, ere long, 
forever and forever triumph and rejoice. 



MAT 18: MORNING. 
Be not high-minded. — Rom. xi., 20. 

Man's natural strength is right in his way when he is nut of 
joint with God, and he is putting between himself and the thing 
needed the strength of an arrogant reason. That self-reliance 
which is so necessary to him in secular things is a hindrance to 
him in spiritual things. That independent purpose and deter- 
mination by which a man is carried forward through his out- 
ward life, when it comes to the inward and spiritual life, is the 
very thing that is an obstacle to his success; and this is the 
reason why we do not find God's yoke easy or his burden light. 
When we come into the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, we 
do not find that that service gives us the deep satisfaction we 
expected it would. We can not see the reason ; but God knows 
the reason. He understands that no person can come into a 
state of perfect rest until he comes into a state of implicit trust ; 
until all his purposes, and thoughts, and feelings are so yielded 
to God that at every hour of the day he can say, " Thy will be 
done," and can roll his burden upon God. Our burdens are 



MAY. 225 

easy when they are upon God ; and our burdens are upon God 
when he is in us, and when he fulfills the promise that he will 
come and abide with us, and we are conscious that our soul 
moves in harmony with his. 



MAY 18: EVENING. 

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye 
sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. — James iv., 8. 

It is possible to hold the world and its vast occupations so 
subordinate that all things earthly shall seem like shadows. 
But how shall we come into that state of mind by which we 
shall be able to do this ? Not by mere wishing. Some come 
into it more easily than others ; but even those that come into 
it most easily can do it only by making it a definite object of 
attainment that is ever present to their mind, and laboring for 
it, and helping themselves by daily pondering the Word of 
God, and by prayer. He that prays has wings. He ascends to 
the tops of mountains that are inaccessible to his feet ; he goes 
out of this world, and becomes a citizen of another; he con- 
verts sense into spirit ; he walks without a path for his feet, 
and is as a bird of God that flies through the trackless air 
whithersoever it will. In our atmosphere, the higher we go 
the less we can breathe ; but in the atmosphere of prayer, the 
higher you go the better you can breathe. And when, by 
prayer, and by pondering the Word of God, a man comes to 
that state in which he is able to measure earthly things by 
heavenly things, the visible by the invisible, then life itself 
turns round and helps him. If he attempts to do it without 
the use of means of grace, life resists him ; but if he attempts 
to do it by communion with God and obedience to the divine 
will, he will find that his occupations day by day will minister 
to that end. 

Lord, what a change within us one short hour 

Spent in thy presence will avail to make ; 

What heavy burdens from our bosoms take ; 
What parched grounds refresh, as with a shower ; 
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower ; 

We rise, and all the distant and the near 

Stand forth in sunny outline, bright and clear ; 

We kneel, how weak ! we rise, how full of power ! 

P 



226 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Why are we ever overborne with care ? 

Why should we ever weak or heartless be, 
Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer, 

And joy, and strength, and courage are with thee ? 



MAT 19: MORNING. 

Oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear 
thee. — Psalm xxxi., 19. 

It seems to me we have testimony in the workings of the 
providence of God in the experiences of our daily life that 
God's love is still shed upon us, although we may be uncon- 
scious of it. I recollect to have read the case of a man in a 
city of Southern Europe who spent his life in getting ^property, 
and became unpopular among his fellow-citizens on account of 
what seemed to them his miserly spirit. When his will was 
read after his death, it stated that he had been poor, and had 
suffered from a lack of water ; that he had seen the poor of the 
city also suffering from a lack of water, and that he had devoted 
his life to the accumulation of means sufficient to build an aque- 
duct to bring water to the city, so that forever afterward the 
poor should be supplied with it. It turned out that the man 
whom the poor had cursed till his death had been laboring to 
provide water for the refreshment of themselves and their chil- 
dren. Oh, how God has been building an aqueduct to bring 
the water of life to us, he not interpreting his acts, and we not 
understanding them ! 



MAT Id: EVENING. 
Glorious things are spoken of thee, city of God. — Psalm lxxxvii., 3. 

We are glad that above the storm, and above the sound of 
earthly troubles, there abides the land of sacred peace. Thither 
have flown some that sang by our side. There are some whom 
we folded and taught to speak with earthly language. There 
rest many who taught our hearts to love. There are the chief 
desired ones, and we are glad for their escape. Nor is the 
.world altogether poorer for their going. They are with us 
yet, with more power than when they were bodily present. 



MAT. 227 

When we rise to our better selves, and by faith can discern 
the invisible, we are not separated from them. In our holiest 
thoughts and in our purest affections we are more theirs than 
ever we were in the infirmities of the common earthly life. 
They are not taken from us. They are but a step before us. 
It is their voice which we hear crying out perpetually from 
the invisible city, Come, come. And we are coming. We are 
coming toward them, and toward thee that hath made them 
lovely, Lord Jesus. By faith of thee, by the strong drawing 
of thy love, by the gracious light and inspiration of the Holy 
Spirit, we are coming to that higher and better life. Would 
that our steps were faster. Would that we might begin to fly. 
Yet we are grateful that our face is set thither ; that the light 
strikes upon our countenance ; that we behold thee sometimes, 
and see the city itself afar off, as pilgrims behold the glimmer- 
ing city which they have not nearly reached ; that we are in 
sympathy with them ; and that there are many hours in which 
we can stand in Zion and before God, with the spirits of just 
men made perfect, and enter into sympathy with all their re- 
joicings and thoughts. 



MAT 20: MOENING. 

This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God 
might be glorified thereby. — John xi., i. 

There are those that by sickness are prematurely laid aside 
from usefulness ; that are bedridden, and that feel that, in being 
denied the opportunity of engaging in the active duties of life, 
they have lost life itself. But it will be found that it is not 
the sunflower, garish and possessed of power to lift itself up, 
that is most esteemed, but the hidden flower that blossoms in 
the shadow of the hedge, that in every adversity is fragrant 
still. Christ will do as you do that never wear the sunflower, 
but often the violet. God will take the humble ones, and make 
them into that precious knot which he will wear on his very 
heart. 

If God has called you to an inactive sphere, he has called you 
there that, by holy thought and affection, you may wreathe for 



228 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

him offerings of silent love, and hope, and desire, which are more 
precious in his sight than any outward activities can be. 

Thus saith the Lord, " Thy days of health are over," 

And, like the mist, my vigor fled away, 
Till but a feeble shadow was remaining — 

A fragile form fast hastening to decay. 
Then sighs of sorrow in my soul would rise, 
Then rushing tears would overflow my eyes ; 
But I beheld thee, O my Lord and God, 
Beneath the cross lay down the shepherd's rod : 
Is this thy will, good Lord ? The strife is o'er ; 
Thy servant weeps no more. 



MAY 20: EVENING. 
Tour life is hid with Christ in God. — Col. iii., 3. 

Every person of richness of soul feels that the dearest part 
of his life — that which seems to him the finest, the noblest, the 
deepest — never is fully and fairly exposed. If you think a mo- 
ment, you are conscious that all those subtlest sentiments, those 
rarest feelings which, when they manifest themselves in you 
with power, and give you some sentiment of divinity, are the 
strains of the soul which you can not speak — which you cer- 
tainly do not. Thus our feelings toward each other, the feel- 
ings that parents have toward their children, orb up and swell 
the soul, but are unutterable. There is more in one look that 
the eye gives than in what the tongue utters in a lifetime. 

But this hidden life is more strikingly illustrated in the course 
of all refined affections. Of all feelings, there is none of which 
men need be so little ashamed as of true love, and none which 
so much puts on all the appearances of shame ; for love is born 
behind blushing defenses. And after it has won its victories, 
and subdued to itself the whole of life, it then more than ever 
has in it the necessity of hiding itself; for love, like the blood 
in the human body, though it be the cause of all the life that 
appears, is itself hidden within the veins, and never seen. 

When the apostle, therefore, speaks of the Christian life as a 
hidden one, it is neither a paradox nor a mystery, although at 
first it may strike one as being so. Interpreted by the analogy 
of the soul's best habits, it is only declaring the Christian's 
hope to be the secret and spring of all the rest of his life. That 
which is the strongest in him, that which is the truest to his 



MAT. 229 

divine nature, that which he considers the best part of him — in 
short, that which he will call his real life, is hidden. " Your 
life is hid with Christ in God." 



MAY 21: MORNING. 
Fear hath torment.— 1 John iv., 18. 

"Fear hath torment." It is a tormentor. It haunts men 
night and day. Great fears may come seldom ; but the poison 
emery, the dust of fear, comes in, as it were, at every crevice, 
and settles down upon every fair thing in life. There are in- 
numerable petty fears ; there are ten thousand little hauntings. 
How full is life of fear which takes away from men the enjoy- 
ment of their prosperity ! Fear stands by the cradle and threat- 
ens the mother ; and all her love and thankfulness can not make 
her happy while fear scowls and threatens. The spectre of fear 
hovers between lovers, and they dread and suffer. It shoots 
like a meteor along the twilight meditations of evening ; it 
hides the sun at noonday with clouds ; it threatens health with 
sickness, and sickness with death, and death with numberless 
terrors. Cares are the offspring of fear. They sting like nox- 
ious insects in tropical nights. Fear discourages poverty; it 
takes ease away from, riches ; it is the persecutor of ambition ; 
it is the parasite of conscience. Fear perpetually exaggerates. 
It is always changing, and coming up in new forms, and always 
dread forms. It is full of illusions. All the way through it is 
undermining the joys and hopes of life. And all this, too, in 
the realm where Christ has been revealed. Go from house to 
house, and mark down how large a play there is of fear ; how 
much of motive is fear ; how largely men work for fear of more 
suffering than they choose to have. And see how men are re- 
strained by fear, standing in the place of conscience. See how 
fear is like broken glass, every particle of which cuts the foot 
that treads on it. How is fear the destroyer of men's peace, 
perpetually rasping them and beating them ? One would think 
that the name of the God who governs this world was Fear. 

Eight over against the gloomy face of Fear stands the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the words of ineffable cheer, " Our Lord Jesus 



230 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, 
and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through 
grace, comfort your hearts." That is just what hearts that are 
sick want — comfort ; and they have it in Christ Jesus and in 
the fatherhood of God, and nowhere else, in such measure or 
with such pertinency of application. 



MAY 21: EVENING. 

Ye are Christ's.— 1 Cor. iii., 23. 

Are you endeavoring to live so as to overcome every known 
sin ? Do you desire, above all things, to obey the Lord Jesus 
Christ ? Is it your purpose to continue in this mind as long as 
you live ? If so, you have a right to look up to Jesus, and say, 
"Thou art mine." This very foretaste of Christian joy, this 
very yearning for more, are evidences that Christ is calling to 
you. What you need to do is not to stop any more to think 
about yourself, but to go right forward in the Christian life 
in your household, in your daily business, wherever you are. 
Whether you are laboring for other people as you have oppor- 
tunity, or whatever you are doing, take the sphere in which 
God's providence has cast your lot, and go right forward, and 
say, " I am Christ's little child. He has redeemed my soul, 
and I am blessed in his love. I rejoice, therefore, in the Lord." 
Appropriate that which comes to you. Take it to yourself, and 
believe it to be true. 



MAY 22: MORNING. 
Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. — 2 Cor. v., 1 7. 

Evert Christian ought to have his day of Pentecost. In 
other words, he ought to come (and the sooner the better) into 
a Christian manhood. He ought to come to a higher sense of 
the love of God to his soul in Jesus Christ. He ought to have 
a more enthusiastic, passionate, clinging, and fiery love of Christ 
— one that shall lift him above pain, and temptation, and cir- 
cumstances in which before he has wavered and oscillated, into 
a higher region of Christian experience in which Christ becomes 



MAY. 231 

to him all in all. This is the privilege of the Christian life. 
There is an experience of the love of Christ which goes far be- 
yond the ordinary experience of Christians, and yet it is open 
to us all. There is an experience of the Lord Jesus Christ's 
presence and living power in the soul that will make you so 
different from what you are by nature that you will not know 
yourselves ; and it will be true to you, in your feelings, that old 
things are passed aicay, and all things are become new. This 
enthusiasm of love and faith is so intense and deep, and so all- 
controlling, that, in comparison with it, every thing which has 
gone before seems as nothing:. 



MAT 22: EVENING. 
And our hope of you is steadfast. — 2 Cor. L, 7. ■ 

When you are like Christ, you will bear all the scourgings, 
and temptations, and inconveniences of life with patience and 
gladness. Then, in accordance with the divine injunction, you 
will count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations ; and 
you can say, with the apostle, "I take pleasure in infirmities, 
in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for 
Christ's sake." When you have arrived at this state, you will 
have arrived at the climax of human experience. We are to 
go beyond the stoic, who bears troubles without complaint from 
a mere sense of duty. We are to come into such a state that 
we shall be able, through divine grace, to take pleasure in our 
allotments in life, whatever they may be, as a part of God's 
Avill toward us ; so that, standing in the midst of things that 
make other men weep, we can look upon them rejoicingly. To 
do these things is to suffer with-Christ ; and we have the prom- 
ise that if we so suffer with him, we shall be especially united 
to him in his glory in the world to come. 

Through cross to crown ; though through thy spirit's life 

Trials untold assail with giant strength, 
Good cheer, good cheer ! Soon ends the bitter strife, 

And thou shalt reign in peace with Christ at length. 

Through death to life ; and through this vale of tears, 

And through this thistle-field of life, ascend 
To the great supper in that world, whose years 

Of bliss unfading, cloudless, know no end. 



232 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



MAT 23: MORNING. 

Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, 
that we, through patience and comfort cf the Scriptures, might have hope.— 
Rom. xv., 4. 

The New Testament is a book of joy. There is not in the 
world a book which is pervaded with such a spirit of exhilara- 
tion. Nowhere does it pour forth a melancholy strain. Often 
pathetic, it is never gloomy. Full of sorrows, it is full of vic- 
tory over sorrow. In all the round of literature, there is not 
another book that can cast such cheer and inspire such hope. 
Yet it eschews humor, and foregoes wit. It is intensely earn- 
est, and yet full of quiet. It is profoundly solemn, and yet 
there is not a strain of morbid feeling in it. 

Some books have recognized the wretchedness of man's con- 
dition on earth, and, in some sense, have produced exhilaration ; 
it has been rather by amusing their readers. They have turned 
life into a comedy. Not so the Christian Scriptures. They 
never jest ; they never ridicule ; they never deal in any wise 
in comic scenes. They disdain, in short, all those methods by 
which other writings have inspired cheer ; and yet, by a meth- 
od of their own, they produce in all who accept them a reason- 
able sympathy, elevation of mind, high hope, and cheerful res- 
ignation. 

Other writers gild the nature of man with the light of an in- 
discriminating benevolence. They tell us, in substance, that 
wickedness is not so wicked as we think; that we put too 
much emphasis on conduct, and attach too much importance to 
events ; that we must look upon men more as if they were 
clouds coming and going in the sky, or like leaves which flut- 
ter, without self-help, as the wind determines. But the New 
Testament unfolds the nature of man in the darkest colors. It 
paints no paradise of innocent sufferers. It sweeps a circle 
around a guilty race, lost in trespasses and sins, and so given 
over to them that all strength for recovery is gone ; and Death, 
universal and final, towers and glooms over the race like a black 
storm that will soon burst forth, unless some kind wind arises 
to bear it back, and sweep it out of the hemisphere. 



MA Y. 



233 



Strange as it is in statement, it is while dealing with such a 
scene that the New Testament writers suffuse their compositions 
with a transcendent joy. Not once, nor twice, hut always, and 
all the way through, they flash with radiant hope and joy — 
hope and joy in the divine nature as revealed to the apostles; 
in the God of all grace, the Christ of infinite suffering love, and 
in the helpful, life-giving influences of the Holy Spirit. 



MAY2B: EVENING. 

For the good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I 
do. — Rom. vii.,19. 

Conscience, instructed in the Word of God, and then vital- 
ized by the imagination, points men to a way so high that few 
succeed in climbing to it ; and if they reach it at all, it is to 
limp and shuffle with such ungracious steps that conscience, in 
angry disgust, hurls them down again. Conscience has an eye 
like the eagle, and, alas ! its talons too. And it is this very 
fact that the sensitive growth of moral feeling is far beyond 
the growth of our practice that makes it impossible for any 
man to find peace under the adjudications of conscience. 

The conscience becoming more sensitive and more critical at 
every step of moral improvement, at length the soul is so stag- 
gered and appalled by the growth of conscience, and by the 
impossibility of being at peace with God on the ground of obe- 
.dience to the law, that there must come a time in which the 
soul shall despair, and give up, and look to God for help as 
from a free love, not as from justice; as a grace, not as a due; 
as a gift, not as a desert. There must come a time when you 
will put yourself in the arms of God, and say, from the depths 
of your experience, " I have tried to dress myself, and to cleanse 
myself, and to make myself fit for thy taking, for I could not 
endure the idea of putting myself into the hands of so sublime 
and pure a Being in so wretched a state ; and I have put on 
every thing, and thrown off every thing, and made such wretch- 
ed work, that, at last, poor, and miserable, and ragged, I come 
to thee ; and if I am taken at all, I must be taken as a sinner." 
The sooner a man comes to that experience the better, for come 



234 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

to it he must, or revolve in misery. No man will have peace 
till he learns that Christ sympathizes with men because they 
are sinful, and longs to heal them. God's heart is medicinal. 
Christ's nature carries a remedial sympathy. He is soul-physi- 
cian, and comes to us, accepts us, and abides by us, not because 
we are well, but that he may make us well. 

Mine is a day of fear and strife, 
A needy soul, a needy life, 
A needy world, a needy age ; 
Yet, in my perilous pilgrimage, 

I cast my soul on thee, 

Mighty to save e'en me, 

Jesus, thou Son of God. 

To thee I come — ah ! only thou 
Canst wipe the sweat from off this brow ; 
Thou, only thou, canst make me whole, 
And soothe the fever of my soul ; 

I cast my soul on thee, 

Mighty to save e'en me, 

Jesus, thou Son of God. 



MAT 24: MORNINQ. 
Be careful for nothing. — Phil, iv., 6. 

As little children will frolic, and play, and talk to themselves, 
and sing, and be happy, if every time they look up they can see 
their mother's form or shadow, or hear her voice, so we, in God's 
greater household, are to have such a consciousness of our Fa- 
ther's presence as shall make us happy, cheerful, contented in 
our sports and duties. We are dear to God. He will not for-, 
get us, nor cease to take care of us. We are so much more 
precious than many things which he never forgets, that we 
stultify ourselves if we refuse to be serene, as they are serene. 
Did you ever know Spring to forget to come ? Did you ever 
know a spring in which the dandelions forgot to mock the sun 
with their little sparkling faces in the grass ? Did you ever 
know a spring in which the ten thousand vines that creep along 
the breast of the earth, and send out their little flowers, or in 
which the grass or the mosses forgot their turn, and time, and 
function? God never yet lets these things oversleep. He al- 
ways calls them, and they always come. And he has been 
calling them, and they have been responding to his call, for six 



235 



thousand years. "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the 
field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall 
he not much more clothe you, oh ye of little faith ?" 



MAYU: EVENING. 

I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not ; I will lead them in 
paths that they have not known. — Isaiah xlii., 16. 

There is one that sits in heaven and controls the elements 

of our being, and holds in his hand the threads of our destiny 

for time and eternity, as I hold in my hand the threads of my 

child's destiny so far as his education for the pursuits of this 

world is concerned. What a glorious office-work must that be 

which he is carrying on for us. Oh, what joy it brings to me 

to think that I am not a lonely wanderer trying to find my 

way, but that the vague and inexplicable yearnings which I 

have, and which I am following, are the drawing-strings thrown 

out to lead me by one who knows just what my necessities are, 

and who stands ready to relieve them all. He is my King, my 

Priest, my Prophet, my all in all, to do whatever I need to have 

done, in body or soul, for time and for eternity. Blessed be 

God for the enunciation of so glorious a doctrine. Be thou, 

Lord Jesus, my head, and let me follow thy beck. 

God hath kept me hitherto ; 
Can he cease, then, to be true ? 
"Why should I just now despair ; 
Can he weary of his care ? 
Hence, tormenting terrors, hence ! 
God shall be my confidence ; 
Let him lead me as he will, 
Oh my soul, and be thou still. 



MAY 25: MORNING. 
If ye love me, keep my commandments. — John xiv., 15. 
Do you notice how many times our Savior expresses this 
thought ? It is as if a child should rush passionately to its 
mother, and throw its little arms around her neck, and hug her, 
and say convulsively, "Oh mother, I do love you so !" "Well, 
my dear child, if you do, why are you not a better child ?" 



236 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

How many times is that heard in the family ? Our Savior said 
the same thing. " If ye love me, do not suppose that that is 
love which goes off into an enthusiasm, an emotion, a parox- 
ysm, a flash of joyous feeling. That is very well; but if you 
love me, let your feelings take on the shape of life, disposition, 
conduct." And afterward, how many times was it said by his 
apostles, in various shapes, that the evidence that we love 
Christ is that we love the brethren — that we keep the com- 
mandments ? 

Then let such questions as these be used to determine your 
state in a Christian life : Am I willing to accept Christ's com- 
mands ? Am I willing, therefore, to find out what they are ? 
Am I sincerely, every day, seeking to frame my disposition ac- 
cording to his commands ? Am I moulding my life to benev- 
olence, and not to selfishness ? Do I imitate Christ's example ? 
Do I practically trust him ? Do I trust his daily providence ? 
Do I put my care upon him? Do I every day endeavor, so far 
as I have light, to act in such a way that if Christ were present 
with me he would have occasion to know that I was trying to 
be like him ? 



MAY 25: EVENING. 

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he 
might bring us to God. — 1 Peter iii., 18. 

You believe in the Bible, you believe in prayer, you believe 
in a great many things ; but do you believe in Jesus ? Do you 
accept the love of Christ as it is taught, in all its fullness, pre- 
ciousness, and universal application, as yours, absolutely yours, 
not only without condition, but, I had almost said, against con- 
ditions ? The particular difficulty which many men feel is that 
Christ will love them upon a condition ; that, if they repent, if 
they come to him, and if they are in a converted state, then he 
will love them ; whereas the Scripture truth is, that while yet 
they are afar off, while they are enemies, long before they are 
converts, Christ loves them ; and that this foregoing love of 
Christ is the very cause of their feeling, and the very reason 
why they desire any thing more, and why they strive for any 
thinsx more. 



MAY. 237 

The love of Christ is not something that is to be dependent 
upon our performance. It is a love that hangs over us night 
and day, just as the sun hangs in the atmosphere. Whether 
men are blind or whether they see, whether they go out of doors 
or stay and hide themselves in the house, the sun goes on shin- 
ing in all his fullness. And the love of Christ is immeasurable. 
It pours abroad for all ; and whoever will, let him come and 
take it freely. 



MAY 26: MORNINa. 

For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of 
God toward you.— 2 Cor. xiii., 4. 

As an encouragement to our perseverance, God is pleased to 
accept the reed-forms of all right experiences, of all graces and 
virtues, until we have time to develop them. He does by us as 
we do by our children. We make allowance for our children's 
mistakes ; we excuse their shortcomings ; we do not spare dis- 
cipline ; we rebuke, we exhort, we coerce in various ways. Not 
because we are angry, but because we see that the inexperience 
of the child can be treated in that way better than in any oth- 
er. For the child's good, we surround him with various mo- 
tives ; and God is pleased to deal with us in the same way. He 
takes us as we are, and says to us, " Here are the bright ideals 
to which you are to aspire ; but you are children, and I will 
bear with you, and educate you, and accept the best you can 
give, all the way up, so that by-and-by you shall praise me 
with understanding and perfectness in heaven." 

Do you say, " I do not love God as he deserves to be loved ?" 
Not even the redeemed in heaven love Christ as he deserves to 
be loved ; and do you suppose that God is such a task-master 
that he will take nothing but that love that even heaven can 
not give ? If you can only bring to God reed-forms and begin- 
nings, then bring those. He will accept them. Bring to God 
the little feeling that you have, and be content with it, and 
thank God for what you have, and love him as much as you 
can, and wait patiently in the use of means, and you will find 
that feeling grow year by year, and every year toward greater 
and greater disclosures. 



238 MOBNINO AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



MAY2Q: EVENING. 

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy 
sins : return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. — Isa. xliv., 22. 

Be not discouraged because you are sinful. It is the very- 
office of Christ's love to heal all your sins. Not, then, only 
when you have overcome them yourself is he prepared to re- 
ceive you ; it is his delight to give you help while in the very 
bitterness of wrestling with your sins. He is your pilot to lead 
you out of trouble. No pilot would he be who only then would 
take my ship when I had gone through the narrows, and could 
see the city, and was quite free of all danger. Who would need 
a physician if he might not come to his bedside until after the 
sickness was healed? what use of school-master if one may not 
go to school till his education be complete ? what hope of sal- 
vation if God would give us no help till the whole work of sub- 
duing the natural heart were completed ? No ! Our Savior is 
one who begins and completes in us the work of grace. He is 
the author of our faith, and the finisher of it. It is his power 
that works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. He 
comes to you when you are morally dead, and by his touch 
brings you to life. When you are weak, he inspires you with 
strength ; when you are tempted, he opens the door of escape ; 
when you are vanquished, he appears, that he may lift you up 
and bind your wounds. Yea, bending under all our burdens, 
and loaded down with our own sins, behold that Christ of whom 
it is said, " He was wounded for our transgressions, he was 
bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was 
upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like 
sheep, have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own 
way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." 

When my sins, in aspect dread, 
Meet like waters o'er my head, 
Seen in light of God's own face, 
Darker for his offered grace ; 
When I sigh for healing rest, 
By a hopeless yoke oppress'd ; 
When I meet some foe unknown, 
Shall I find myself alone ? 
Hear the Shepherd's voice of old, 
Looking on his helpless fold : 



MAT. 239 



" Every feeble sheep I know ; 
Life eternal I bestow ; 
None shall pluck them from my hand. " 
Shall that word of promise stand ? 
" Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
Not my words, " so Christ doth say. 
In death's grasp "his truth shall be 
Shield and buckler unto thee." 



MAT 27: MORNING. 
As the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. — 1 Cor. vii., 17. 

All men that labor productively and skillfully are real ben- 
efactors of the community. And why do not they know it ? 
why do not they feel the honor ? why do not men preach it to 
them ? why are they not told that they should not look upon 
the mere self-side of their avocations ? The merchant, the me- 
chanic, the day -laborer, bearing endless benefactions to the 
community — why do not they regard their labors in a higher 
light ? Why do they not feel that they are contributing to the 
welfare of their fellow-men as well as to their own welfare, and 
that so they are following Christ ? If they only did their life- 
work on purpose to follow Christ ; if they only did it because 
it was following Christ; if they only joyed in following him, 
and if the consciousness of following him was their reward, 
then they would rise to the dignity of some remote imitation 
of the Master ; whereas they are without the reward, even 
though they do the same things, if they do them only for self- 
ish, pitiful pelf. 

Let every man, then, follow the occupation that God has giv- 
en him, and understand that in following it he is rendering a 
service to his fellow-men ; let him feel, " I am honored in these 
appointed channels of God's providence, that I am permitted 
to give my life for my fellow-men — that is, to live it for them." 

MAT 27: EVENING. 

Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not highminded, nor 
trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things 
to enjoy. — 1 Tim. vi.,17. 

When men come' to walk the shadowy way, when the great 
Tax-gatherer calls all men before him, to one he says, " Give 



240 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

me thy ships." "Oh Death, they are thine," saith the man. To 
others he says, " Give me thy houses and lands ;" and they and 
their possessions part company without papers. To another he 
says, " Give me thy funds that thou hast toiled for ;" and the 
man that stood highest in his day and generation is stripped 
bare, and goes out of the world with no capital for the life to 
come. 

Then comes another man, a man of dreams, as he is called. 
Death says to him, " Yield up thy ships." " I have none." 
"Yield up thine acres." "I have none." "Yield up thy bonds 
and funds." "I have none." "Yield up thy thoughts." "Nay, 
oh Death, my thoughts are mine, and beyond thy power." "Yield 
up thy affections." " Nay, Death, thou canst not touch my af- 
fections. And my hope, my immortality — these are not in thy 
schedule. That which I am by the grace of God, thou canst not 
tax or hold. I carry all that with me." The man that is might- 
iest in this world leaves his might behind him, and the man that 
is weakest in this world carries his might with him. When we 
step into that other world where things are measured accord- 
ing to their realities, the man that has the most has the least, 
and the man that has the least has the most. And so the first 
shall be last, and the last shall be first. 

I love (and have some cause to love) the earth ; 

She is my Maker's creature, therefore good : 
She is my mother, for she gave me birth ; 

She is my tender nurse : she gives me food. 
But what's a creature, Lord, compared with thee ? 
Or what's my mother, or my nurse, to me ? 

Without thy presence, earth gives no refection ; 

Without thy presence, sea affords no treasure ; 
Without thy presence, air's a rank infection ; 

Without thy presence, heav'n itself's no pleasure. 
If not possessed, if not enjoyed in thee, - 
What's earth, or sea, or air, or heaven, to me ? 



MAT 2^: MORNING. 
Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord. — Psalm cxxvii., 3. 
It is a very solemn and serious matter for you to be intrust- 
ed with the care of God's little children. One would think, to 
see the mating that goes on in society— and it is a beautiful 



MAY. 241 

thing in its way — that butterflies were let loose, so light, and 
gay, and happy are the hearts that sail together and play 
around each other. One would think, to hear the cheerful 
congratulations that accompany the putting out of a young 
life in the family state, that there was no responsibility con- 
nected with the event. And when there begin to be " angels 
unawares" coming into the household, one after another, how 
joyous it is ! The silver cups and little congratulatory notes 
are plenty. But how few there are who feel that, from the 
time the door of life opens, and a child is born, God has drawn 
his hand out from near to his own heart, and lent something of 
himself to the parent, and said, "Keep it till I come; take this, 
my own child, and educate it for me, and bring it to heaven, 
and let its improving and its profiting appear when ye and it 
stand together in the last day." It is a very solemn thing to 
have a family, and to have children, of which you are not only 
the parent, but the guardian and the guide, and in some sense 
the savior. 



MAY 28: EVENING. 
Who gave himself a ransom for all. — 1 Tim. ii., G. 

I am glad to give emphasis and power to the fact that Christ 
gave his life as much while he was living as while he was dy- 
ing, and that to give life may mean either to use it or lay it 
down. It is said that Christ gave, not his life, but himself. He 
gave himself in dying, but he also gave himself in living. All 
his life was a giving. For he lived not for himself. He sought 
not his own. He did not employ his reason, nor his moral sen- 
timents, nor his active forces, nor his time, nor his power, for 
himself. And the three years, or nearly three, that preceded 
his death, were in some respects a far more remarkable gift 
than was the death itself. He used his life for others as really 
as he laid it down for them. He gave his life while it was in 
his own keeping, as really as when it was taken away from him. 
The gift of Christ is the gift in its totality, in all the variations 
of his experience. Though on some accounts the tragic cir- 
cumstances of his death lift it up into conspicuity, though by 
reason of man's fears and man's education there is given to it 

Q 



242 * MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

a sombre importance that belongs to no single act of his life, 
yet I think, as we become clearer in our moral perceptions, and 
finer in our nature, we learn, not indeed to disesteem that part 
of Christ's example, but to go back and give more emphasis to 
the other part, and to lift up the daily conversations, the daily 
patience, the daily love, the ten thousand fidelities which belong 
to so great a life, carried wholly for its benefit upon others, 
and not at all for his own mere personal convenience or gain. 



MAT 2d: MORNING. 

Let us not be weary in well doing ; for in due season we shall reap, if we 
faint not.— Gal. vi., 9. 

Theke are many that seem to themselves to have done little 
on earth. You do not know what you have done. The bud 
that is bursting to-day on the tree you could take between 
your thumb and finger; but let it grow this summer, and then 
see what that bud is when it bears branches, and those branches 
bear other branches. And yet these are all contained in that 
little bud. Now, all the good we do in this world is a bud in 
the garden of the Lord, which will in the future grow and 
spread, and yield grateful fragrance, and bear abundant fruit. 
Because you are working in obscure places, and do not see the 
results of your labors, do not suppose that your life is thrown 
away. All the more, if you see no results here, believe that 
you shall see them in the heavenly land. Have patience, and 
work on. It is a hard soil that can not be cultivated at all. 

Go make thy garden fair as thou canst, 

Thou workest never alone ; 
Perchance he whose plot is next to thine 

Will see it, and mend his own. 

And the next may copy his, sweet heart, 

Tiil all grows fair and sweet, 
And when the Master comes at eve, 

Happy faces his coming will greet. 

Then shall thy joy be full, sweet heart, 

In the garden so fair to see, 
In the Master's words of praise for all, 

In a look of his own for thee. 



243 



MAT 29 : EVENING. 
They that use this world as not abusing it. — 1 Cor. vii., 31. 

If you stand in affinities one with another, do not break the 
silver hands in order to he a Christian. Polish them. You 
say, " I am engaged in weighty affairs ; I minister to the times 
in which I live." If the affairs are right affairs, do not lay those 
affairs down to be a Christian. You are God's minister in those 
very things, and I say, Keep them — for Christ's sake, keep them. 
" But if a man becomes a Christian, must he not suffer ?" How 
suffer ? Just as a man who has broken his leg suffers when it 
is set. But it is a little suffering for the sake of life-long health 
of limb, just as men who are sick take medicine that they may 
get well. Do you then say that a man had better be sick all 
his life rather than go through the pain and penalty of getting 
well ? If you are only a little bit of a Christian — if you have 
just enough religion to keep a fire burning under your con- 
science, you will suffer ; but if you give yourself to religion — 
if you accept it — then it is another name for the total education 
of your moral being and life. If you bring your life and dispo- 
sition into consonance with those laws of life and character 
which God has laid down, then ye are come to the "heavenly 
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the 
general assembly and church of the first-born, and to God, the 
Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to 
Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of 
sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." 



MAT SO: MOBNING. 

The discretion of a man deferreth his anger, and it is his glory to pass over 
a transgression. — Prov. xix., 11. 

We must be patient with men who are not patient them- 
selves with us or with their fellow-men. There are a great 
many men that are, by the heat and momentum of their pas- 
sions, swept into unconscious cruelty. With all such men we 
are to be patient. Every man seems to think that he is called 



244 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

to avenge wrong in this world, and one of the subtlest and wick- 
edest of all pleas is, " I did not give him any more than he de- 
served." Who made you a judge or an executioner to give 
men what they deserve ? " Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, 
saith the Lord ;" and you have no right to take upon yourself 
the prerogatives of God, and punish men, though they are wick- 
ed, except in cases where, by unmistakable providences, or by 
ordinances of men, you are authorized to deal with such cases. 
When, therefore, men are cruel, and even persecuting, they are 
not put beyond the bound of your duty. " Be patient toward 

all men." 

Do naught but good ; for such the noble strife 

Of virtue is— 'gainst wrong to venture love, 
And for thy foe devote a brother's life, 

Content to wait the recompense above ; 
Brave for the truth, to fiercest insult meek, 
In mercy strong, in vengeance only weak. 

MAY ZO: EVENING. 
We love him because he first loved us. — 1 John iv., 19. 

Men never find Christ, but are always found of him. He 
goes forth to seek and to save the lost. It is not the outreaching 
of our thought, the abstraction of our heart, the strong drawing 
of our sympathy and yearning, that brings him to us. It is the 
abounding love of his heart that draws us up toward him. His 
love precedes ours. We kindle our hearts at his. As the sun 
is up before the sluggard, so the twilight and dawn of his love 
is upon the hills when we wake; and when we sleep, even, his 
thoughts burn above us as the stars burn through the night. 

This willing, winning, pleading Christ, who wields all the 
grandeur of justice and all the authority of universal empire 
with such sweet gentleness that in all the earth there is none 
like unto him, is your personal friend. He knows you better 
than your mother knew you. He has called you by name. In_ 
your households you are not so familiar to your most cherished 
friend as you are to the heart of Christ. Not so indelibly is 
your name recorded in your father's memory, or in the bap- 
tismal register of the sanctuary, or in the family Bible, where 
the tabular leaf for births holds your infant name, as upon the 
ever-remembering heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. 



MAY. 245 



MAT SI: MORNING. 

As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you ; continue ye in my love. 
— John xv. , 9. 

Our Lord addressed himself to men's love, and he still ad- 
dresses himself to their love. He offered and offers all, and he 
demands all. Though calm, our Savior was an intense lover. 
His own need, everlastingly, is to be intensely loved. With all 
the heart, mind, soul, and strength — that is the heavenly love- 
formula. A passionate love to Christ was practically the whole 
creed of the primitive Church. They thought less than we do, 
by far, of the Bible ; for then only the Old Testament was in 
their hands, and the New was not written. In the primitive 
Church there had been drawn out no doctrines. They believed 
the supreme fact that Christ came, died for our sins, rose again, 
and ascended up on high. The whole of their belief was com- 
prised in this personal fact. It not only was the whole creed 
of every primitive Christian, but it is still the whole creed of 
every deeply spiritual Christian. He who knows how to love 
Christ supremely finds that from that vivid, vitalizing centre 
spring all precautionary and all formative influences, so that 
every truly spiritual Christian learns that the operative power 
in his soul is the personal love which he enthusiastically bears 
to the Lord Jesus Christ. 



MAT 31: EVENING. 

Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope 
in his mercy, to deliver their soul from death. — Psalm xxxiii., 18, 19. 

When your time to die comes, and you are to leave this 
world, do you suppose the Lord Jesus, who loves you better 
than you love yourself, has not arranged every thing so that 
you will be willing to go ? You want to feel willing now ; but 
he does not want you to be willing. You want to be willing 
to leave your children when God wants you to stay with them 
and take care of them. You have the knowledge, the spirit of 
fidelity, and the strength which qualify you for that work ; and 
what are these but indications that your duty is to live and 



246 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

take care of them. This equipment is a sign and token that 
now, to-day, your duties are here ; and it is right that at this 
time you should feel unwilling to die, though one year hence, 
or one month hence, you may feel, and it may be proper for 
you to feel willing to die. 

When, by-and-by, God leads you step by step down to the 
trouble which you are thinking of, there will have been wrought 
such changes, and such preparations will have taken place, that 
it will not seem like a trouble. 

Thy hand in his, like fondest, happiest child, 
Place thou, nor draw it for a moment thence ; 

Walk thou with him, a Father reconciled, 
Till in his own good time he call thee hence. 

Walk with him now, so shall thy way he bright, 

And all thy soul be filled with his most glorious light. 



JUNE 1 : MORNING. 
Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.— Psalm ciii., 5. 

Christianity is, in its very nature, the endowing of a man 
with royalty of character. It is the making things strong and 
sweet, and fruitful and beautiful. Beauty and liberty, and life 
and power, belong to every single element to which a man is 
called in the Christian life. Christ and the Christian life are 
the only way in which a man can fulfill his nature ; the only 
way in which a' man can rightly develop his reason, and subor- 
dinate passion to moral sentiment ; the only way in which mor- 
al sentiment can come to all its blossoms and to all its beauty. 
Without religion, a man is like gold which is hidden in a moun- 
tain. With it, he is like the gold when it is dug out, and be- 
comes coin, or is made into ten thousand beautiful objects. 
Without religion, a man is as a seed. With it, he is as the oak 
which is developed from that seed, or the wine that has been 
produced from that seed, or the flowers that have sprung from 
that seed. 

If a man, therefore, looks upon the Christian life, and says, 
" Oh, it is a dreary, cross-bearing, sighing, solitary kind of life !" 
I say it is not. If he says, " It is not the life for the young ea- 
gle or the lion," I say it is just the life for the young eagle, and 
that " the Lion of the tribe of Judah" is its model. The eaarle 



JUNE. 247 

is the very symbol employed ; and God calls us eaglets, to be 
borne aloft by his power. 

JUNE 1 : EVENING. 
Lord, teach us to pray. — Luke xi., 1. 

Theee may be many reasons why you do not like to pray. 
One may be that you are really not a Christian, and can not 
speak the language of Canaan. Another reason may be that 
you have not learned to pray in a manner that is adapted to 
you. It may be that you undertake to employ forms of speech 
which to you are unbefitting. You remember how David at- 
tempted to fight the battle with Goliath in Saul's armor, how 
he found it too large and too heavy for him, and how he went 
back and got his simple sling, with which he slew the giant. 
Many of you make a similar mistake in praying. You try to 
pray as the minister does, or as some elder or class-leader does, 
or as some fluent brother does, and you do not succeed. You 
try to walk in the prayer of another person who has had more 
experience than you have, and it rattles about as Saul's armor 
did about David. It is a world too big for you. It does not 
fit you any where. I do not wonder that you do not want to 
pray under such circumstances. If, imitating David, who went 
back to the sling, the simplest of all weapons, you would be 
content to pray as a little child — if you would go back to lisp- 
ing, monosyllabic prayers, you would have less difficulty, and 
would like prayer better. 



JUNE 2 : MORNING. 
They think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.— Matt, vi., 7. 
Some persons attempt to bring down blessings by much pray- 
ing. They bombard the throne of grace, as it were, without any 
definite object in their mind. They pray without knowing ex- 
actly what they are praying for. This is not wise. In my own 
experience, I have found that when my thoughts have been 
withdrawn to other things, and, being brought back to God, 
my mind is not eager to hold converse with him, it is not well 



248 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

to plead with him in measured prayers, as though I were bound 
to say so much to him every day, and as though he would not 
be satisfied with any thing less. My father, and mother, and 
friends never required me to talk with them a given amount. 
If I came where they were, and did not feel like talking, they 
bore with my silence. So, when I go to God, if I do not feel 
like making long prayers, I make short ones. I do it, first, be- 
cause I have not much to say, and it is not truthful to go on 
praying when you have nothing to say ; and, secondly, because 
short prayers under such circumstances are positively more ben- 
eficial than long ones. 

JUNE 2 : EVENING. \ 

For thy sake I have borne reproach. — Psalm lxix., 7. 

There are many persons who will bear the cross provided 
they receive recognition and applause. As long as you can 
have friends to come in and say, every day, " Your lot is a very 
hard one ; I wonder how you can bear it," you feel that it is 
worth while to have a cross to bear, for the sake of the sympa- 
thy and praise that it brings. But suppose nobody saw you, 
would you bear it then ? Suppose people did not believe it of 
you when others told it ? Nay, suppose they misconstrued it — 
suppose you found that injurious stories were circulated about 
you in respect to that work into which you were putting all 
your strength — suppose you found yourself buffeted and re- 
viled, do you think you would not revile again, and that you 
would say, " Lord Jesus, only be thou true to me, and I care 
not what all the world do; I will follow thee, and I will take 
up my cross, and count my life not dear to me ; and I will do 
it for the sake of those who are outcast and who need me. As 
thou hast been a Savior to me, so I will be a savior to them ?" 
Nay, can you go night after night to Christ, and say, "Lord, 
how can I enough thank thee for permitting me to do it ? for 
accounting me worthy, not only to be called by thy name, but 
to suffer for thy sake ?" 

Thou must walk on, however men upbraid thee, 
With him who trod the wine-press all alone ; 

Thou may'st not find one human hand to aid thee, 
One human soul to comprehend thine own. 



JUNE. 249 



JUNE 3 : MORNING. 

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and 
easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and with- 
out hypocrisy. — James iii., 17. 

It is only by having patience with men that you can retain 
any hold upon them. You must not break that sympathetic 
cord in your soul and theirs by which alone you can convey to 
them the mercies and blessings of God. The moment a man is 
outside of your pity and forbearance, that moment he is outside 
of your diocese. You can not do any thing for a man that you 
dislike. You can not help him; you can not pi'ay for him; 
you can not draw him ; you can not teach him. If you are to 
do good to men — if you are to stand between their Savior and 
them — you must do it by maintaining that patience and gen- 
tleness which love inspires. Only so can you help men. 

Would you have sympathy for the racked victim of the In- 
quisition ? And ought you not also to have sympathy for the 
inquisitor ? Would you have sympathy for the victim of the 
guillotine ? And ought you not also to have sympathy for the 
judge that condeinned i him ? There is an eternity of joy or 
woe for the one as well as for the other ; and though you hate 
the wickedness, you ought to have patience and sympathy with 
the man. It is easy to have sympathy and patience with those 
that are wronged or suffering, but it is hard to have sympathy 
and patience with those that inflict the wrong and cause the 
suffering. Yet it is only by doing this that you can do them 
good. And it is a sad thing for a human soul to have such dis- 
positions as disqualify him for touching another soul with recu- 
perative power. 

JUNE 3 : EVENING. 
All thy works shall praise thee, Lord. — Psalm cxlv. , 10. 
Ye are come not only to the home and city of the living God, 
and to angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, but 
ye are come to God himself. Ye are brought into the loving 
presence, and into the living, immediate, and continuous sympa- 
thy of God. What is the grandeur of the night, or what is the 



250 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

glory of such an over-canopying day but this, that it is the 
heaven of my God, and that it brings him nearer to me ? What 
is the grandeur of the field, the pomp of the hill, the glory of 
the summer, the wealth of the autumn — what are all forms, 
and all colors, and all forces, and all sounds, and all harmonies 
therein but this, that they minister, either individually or col- 
lectively, the sense of the beauty, the grandeur, and the reality 
of the presence of God ? It is God that makes the stillness of 
the air so sweet. It is God that makes the tumult of the storm 
so enjoyable. It is God that makes the night better than the 
bed to our weary thoughts. It is God that makes the daylight 
full of splendor and full of glory. It is God that rules the year. 
Nature would be scarcely worth a puff of the empty wind if it 
were not that all nature is a temple of which God is the bright- 
ness and the glory. And whenever a man becomes a Christian, 
he comes into such an apprehensive state that he comes right 
home to God in every thing and every where. Not the Bible 
alone, but the earth, teaches us of God. 



JUNE A: HORNING. 

And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, 
or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a 
hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life. — Matt. xix. , 29. 

If you will go into any jeweler's shop you will find that, 
where the manufacturing is carried on, what with the leather 
aprons that the workmen wear, and a perfectly tight floor with 
a checkered frame of wood over it, the dust and filings of gold 
that fall are all caught, so that nothing is lost. So admirable 
are the arrangements of the Assay Office in New York, that not 
any appreciable amount of the gold that is sent there is lost in 
any of the processes. It is caught out of the smoke, and out 
of the acids, and swept up with the dirt, and every thing that 
goes in comes out again refined and purified. It seems lost in 
the alembic, and in the corroding acids, and it seems to be pass- 
ing off in the air through the funnels, but by chemistry it is 
saved, an'd at last reproduced. It seems to us as if we were 
losing. No, we are not. God's laboratory in this world is 



JUNE. 251 

carefully arranged to save every particle of all that is valua- 
ble. Of the things that you think you are losing, not one is 
lost. God saves them all ; heaven keeps them all. And among 
the surprises of the other life will be, I think, that we shall find 
that on all that on which we have written " loss" here, angels 
will have written " gain" there. 



JUNE 4 : EVENING. 

And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of af- 
fliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thins 
eyes shall see thy teachers : and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, say- 
ing, This is the way, walk ye in it. — Isaiah xxx., 20, 21 . 

I bring to your memory a Savior who is in sympathy and in 
blessed relations with you. Fall not into that weak and poor 
way of thinking of the sympathy of Christ as if it were merely 
showering sunlight on you. God makes his sun to rise on the 
good and on the evil alike. The sun does not know how to 
make any difference between things and men. It makes no 
discriminations. It shines on me, and it shines on every thing- 
else just as much. But when my God looks on me, I hope he 
makes a difference. I hope, when he administers toward me 
and the brute, it is not all the same. I want to feel that he is 
pressing down the bad and lifting up the good in me. And if 
it hurts, only let me know what the hurt means, and I am will- 
ing to bear it. If it is only God, let him take any thing and 
every thing. Empty my crib ; empty my cradle ; wring my 
heart ; shut me up ; do any thing — Lord God, love me, and 
then do any thing. 

To be loved t>f God ; to be nurtured here ; to be disciplined ; 
to be taught ; to be prepared for the heavenly estate, and then 
go home to be present with the Lord forever — that is joy un- 
speakable, as it shall be full of glory. 

Oh Love, who thus hath bound me fast, 

Beneath that gentle yoke of thine— 
Love, who hast conquered me at last, 

And rapt away this heart of mine — 
Oh Love, I give myself to thee, 
Thine ever, only thine to be. 



252 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JUNE 5 : MORNING. 

If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother 
hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way; 
first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. — Matthew 
v., 23, 24. 

Many men substitute a certain sort of religious sensibility 
for religion, instead of evolving a practical religious life, which, 
day by day, and hour by hour, exerts a powerful constraining 
and inspiring influence upon them. 

How stand the facts in your case ? Have you never injured 
a man, and often and often resolved that you would make rep- 
aration, and have you not omitted to make that reparation ? 
Is there no vice in your affairs of which, as often as it comes, 
you say, " This shall be repaired," and is it not unrepaired to 
this day ? Is there nothing in your method of treating your 
wife — no hardness, no arrogance, no overbearingness of temper 
— which you have meant, time after time, to overcome, and 
have you made one single efficient effort to overcome it? Is 
there nothing in your treatment of your husband that you 
know is inconsistent with true and gracious love, and have 
you followed your convictions of right on this point ? Are 
there not in your relations to your children whole harvest- 
fields of duties that you have been meaning to perform, but 
that will be unreaped unless you make haste to perform them? 
In your relations to your parents, to your brothers, and to your 
sisters, could you not count up scores of duties that you ought 
to have performed long ago, but which you have neglected to 
perform:? If you were to make an inventor^ of the things 
which you have known to be right, but have not followed, how 
many they would be. 

JUNE 5 : EVENING. 
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith : 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to me only, but unto 
all them also that love his appearing. — 2 Tim. iv., 7, 8. 

. Self-denial is a universal principle which belongs to every 



JUNE. 253 

sphere and part of human life. Without it no man can go 
through the world. And the only question that we have to 
settle is this : Will you employ self-denial for the sake of ex- 
alting yourself, or will you employ it for the sake of debasing 
yourself? Will you use it as a staff to lead you higher and 
higher, or to go down deeper and deeper, murkier and more de- 
graded ? 

" And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate 
in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, 
but we an incorruptible." 

While yet they live, the leaves grow sear upon their brow. 
Their very footsteps, with which they sound the dance, shake 
down these withered leaves, and they are discrowned in the 
very wearing of their crowns. But around about our heads 
that follow Christ invisible leaves there ai*e; or, if they are vis- 
ible, men call them thorns — as they should be called, since we 
follow him that wore them; but as the angels behold them, 
they are those imperishable flowers — that amaranth which nev- 
er blossoms to fade or to fail. And our crown shall be bright 
when the stars have gone, and the sun has forgotten to shine. 



JUNES: MOBNING. 

If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God ; if any man minister, 

let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be 

glorified through Jesus Christ : to whom be praise and dominion forever and 

ever. Amen. — 1 Peter iv. , 11. 

A man's life as a Christian ought to be like a farmer's life. 
It is raining to-day, and the old farmer says, " Well, what of 
that ? I meant to get in my hay to-day, but there is something 
else that I can do. There is that old hay to be moved into the 
old barn, and there is that door to be hung on new hinges. I 
have been waiting for a rainy day to repair this machine. There 
is the big wagon to be fixed. Besides, I must mend that har- 
ness." There is enough work for five wet days ; and is he not 
working on the farm as much while doing these things as 
though he were getting in his hay ? He has a wide range of 
occupation ; and, although his work varies from day to day, 
and from season to season, it is all husbandry. 



254 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Now a Christian ought to live on so broad a scale of expe- 
rience that if to-day he does not feel like acting in one direc- 
tion, he will in another. To-day it may be your duty to teach. 
It may be your duty to-morrow to receive instruction. It is 
Christian life to-day filled with fervency of prayer. To-mor- 
row it may not be feeling of this type ; it may be benevolence, 
that produces sympathy for others in trouble. The next day 
it may be some other Christian disposition that will open up in 
you. It may be the restraint of selfishness. It may be doing 
a generous deed. There are a thousand things that go to con- 
stitute you an agreeable, kind, loving, and loved Christian — 
one whose light, shining before men, is such that they want it, 
and seek to kindle their lamps at the same altar where you 
kindled yours. In that way a man can live so that his life Avill 
be spontaneous all the time. 

JUNES: EVENING. 

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in 
ourselves, hut in God which raiseth the dead.— 2 Cor. i.,9. 

Tiieee are times in which we are beaten off from all confi- 
dence in men, in which there seems to be no feeling of trust- 
worthiness ; times of affliction in which the soul seems obliged 
to let go of every thing ; times of sickness, which are also times 
of great weakness, in which one has neither courage nor weapon 
for life's battle. The peculiarity of many of the afflictions of 
life is that they take man's strength out of him. There is noth- 
ing in him left to rise up against trouble. 

There is but one thing under such circumstances that affords 
any consolation. When, by reason of afflictions of any kind, 
life is paralyzed, and there is no sensibility left, if the soul can 
lift itself up to feel that there is life in God — that there is a vital 
connection between itself and the life of Christ ; that, though it 
die, it shall live — the simple thought that Christ lives and so 
shall I, that is an anchor which sustains the soul in its extremi- 
ty and emergency of grief. 

Steadfast faith and hope unshaken 

Animate the trusting breast ; 
Step by step the journey's taken 

Nearer to the land of rest. 



JUNE. 255 



All unseen, the Master walketh 
By the toiling servant's side ; 

Comfortable words he talketh, 
"While his hands uphold and guide. 

Grief, nor pain, nor any sorrow 
Rends thy heart to him unknown \ 

He to-day and he to-morrow 
Grace sufficient gives his own. 



JUNE 7 : MORNING. 

Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what 
shall we do ? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is ap- 
pointed j<m.—Luke iii., 12, 13. 

Our worldly occupations and our religious life are only two 
names for one thing. They are parts of our life, and never 
should be separated. Our daily business should be a part of 
our daily religion, and our daily religion should also be a part 
of our daily business. "We never should antagonize them in 
our thoughts. The spiritual element is to the practical what 
the dew, and rain, and sunlight are to the growing field of corn. 
In the closet we cleanse and inspire the soul, but in our busi- 
ness we use that strength which we have gained by this inspir- 
ing and cleansing. Our whole life is a religious life. The ex- 
periences of inspiration may be spiritual in the closet, but the 
real life of every man is that into which he puts his energy, his 
strength, his vitality, his power. "Whenever men are, there they 
ought to put their power of understanding, their power.of senti- 
ment, their power of feeling, their power of planning and exe- 
cution. That is the thing for a Christian man to do. And the 
kind of power which he has, and the moral quality of it, de- 
pend upon the influence of the interior and invisible life. 



JUNE 7: EVENING. 

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man cometh 
unto the Father but by me.— John xiv., 6. 

Oh ye that are so conscientious, and so tremulously afraid of 
idolatry that you go groping in heathen antiquity with a vague 
feeling unexpressed Tor the Father, the great Almighty; ye 



256 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

who long for that God, will you press away the brightest ex- 
emplification, the real and literal embodiment of this everlast- 
ing Father — Jesus Christ? Praying for light, praying for 
knowledge, and having it brought to you in the person of 
Christ Jesus, who loves and lives to love, and reigns, and reigns 
to love, and by love shall subdue all disobedience, and cleanse 
all sin, and redeem the world to everlasting rapture and glory 
through righteousness, will you not take that pre-eminent rep- 
resentation of God — the best that can be given to the human 
understanding and the human senses ; and will you not, with 
all that are in heaven, and all that yet shall be upon earth, bow 
the knee, and cry, " Crown him, crown him Lord of all ?" Oh 
that I could show you God as he is represented in Christ Jesus 
— the self-sacrificing God ; the fatherly God ; the God who is 
represented as giving himself rather than let you destroy your- 
selves ; as taking men's sins, and carrying them in his own ex- 
perience, rather than that men should suffer. That God who 
is represented in Christ Jesus is the cure of fear and doubt, and 
is the very anchor of the soul in all its wanderings, and drift - 
ings, and storm-drivings. 

Conquering Prince and Lord of glory, 

Majesty enthroned in light, 
All the heavens are bowed before thee, 

Far beyond them spreads thy might. 
Shall I fall not at thy feet, 
And my heart with rapture beat, 
Now thy glory is displayed, 
Thine ere yet the worlds were made ? 

As I watch thee far ascending , 

To the right hand of the throne, 
See the host before thee bending, 

Praising thee in sweetest tone, 
Shall I not, too, at thy feet 
Hear the angels' strain repeat, 
And rejoice that heaven doth sing 
With the triumph of my King ? 



JUNE 8 : MORNING. 

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and 
bringeth them up into a high mountain apart. — Matt, xvii., 1. 

Are you fretted with care? Are you troubled with men 
that are ugly ? If you are not, I wish you would put me in 



JUNE. 25 7 

your place. Does life chafe you ? Are there many buckles in 
the harness in which you work ? and is every one rubbing the 
skin off? 

When August comes, take a trip to the White Mountains. 
Go up to the top of Mount Washington. Go alone. Ride, as 
I rode, back for two hours, all alone, on the mountain top, lift- 
ed up into the ether. Why, there was nothing to be heard 
there but the blunt sound of my horse's feet, and that was not 
to be heard half of the time, for I stopped him. I looked upon 
the shimmering country, and it seemed no more as if it was 
populated than a map. I said to myself, " Is there an ocean 
thundering on the shore ? Are there cities lining it ? Is there 
a Portland ? Is there a Boston ? Is there a New Haven ? Is 
there a New York? Are there wild, crashing, and rolling 
sounds of business? Are men mad?" I laughed at the idea 
that any body should be mad at any thing, every thing was so 
sweet, so pure, so tranquil, so peaceful. Why, I looked upon 
life, and it seemed to me that I was as far from its noises and 
troubles as from the fury and strife of ants in their hills. Look 
at them. Behold their fiery industry. How they fight and 
rage. And you stand absolutely unconcerned. And so you 
may stand on the outside of the greater ant-hill of human life, 
and look with unconcern upon men's trials, and be only as near 
to heaven as the top of Mount Washington. That is not far 
up ; and yet it is up far enough to so take you out of the smoke 
and din of worldly affairs as to bring back sanity to your mind, 
and deliver you from drunken ambition, and swirling passions, 
and feverish desires, and enable you to look more tranquilly, 
and with a clearer vision, uj>on the scene of conflict out of 
which you have so lately come, to which you are soon going 
back, and in which you will be again swamped. There are a 
great many men who, under such circumstances, say, " Oh, I 
should like to make a tabernacle, and live in the state that I am 
now in ; I should be so calm, so tranquil, and so sweet-minded." 

These were but seasons beautiful and rare ; 

Abide in me, and they shall ever be : 
Fulfill at once thy precept and my prayer ; 

Come and abide in me, and I in thee. 

R 



258 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

JUNE 8 : EVENING. 
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. — 1 Cor. xi.,31. 

When you want to find out how you stand, it is very well 
for you to make an estimate of your material resources. Go 
and look at your bank account ; see what your stocks are 
worth; ascertain the amount of your gold, and silver, and 
bills'; examine your tax-list, and acquaint yourself with men's 
opinions concerning you. These things are all very well. 
Then, in the hour of prayer, in the conscious presence of God, 
take an account also of the treasures within you. See how 
much you have of righteousness, and godliness, and faith, and 
love, and patience, and meekness, and disinterested goodness. 
And when you have first measured outside, and then measured 
inside, you will have the measurement of the cask, and also of 
the wine which it holds. 



JUNE 9: MORNING. 
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
giving thanks to God and the Father by him. — Col. iii., 17. 

Seek to live with diverse experiences. Have a broader con- 
ception of Christian life than that it consists in merely saying 
prayers, singing hymns, and talking to men about their souls. 
These are an important part of Christian duty frequently ; but 
ah ! there are a thousand other things that are essential. There 
is the beauty of holiness as well as the power of holiness. There 
is the soothing duty as well as the rousing duty. There is in- 
struction as well as exhortation. There is preparation for future 
duty as well as the execution of present duty. These are all 
parts of one Christian character. Every man should live so 
broadly that day by day he will find something to do which 
lie wants to do, and which he does with appetite. Then other 
duties which are regular, which press themselves upon him, let 
him do because they are duties. And if he can not do even 
that, and they are urgent duties, let him do them, whatever the 
motive may be. So he will rise higher and higher toward the 
true Christian plane, which is the plane of spontaneity, of in- 



JUNE. 259 

voluntary activity, of being and doing from the love of that 
which is essentially true, and beautiful, and pure, and right, 
and good. 

JUNE 9 : EVENING. 

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patienee wait for ii. — 
Rom. viii., 25. 

Reverie, or castle-building, may be carried to extremes and 
be unprofitably indulged in, but nevertheless there is in it a 
glorious element of moral improvement. It is just that that 
the apostle means when he says, " We are saved by hope." 
Blessed be the man that, when he can not bear the present, 
knows how to leap out of it and revel in a bright future. 

God's grace upon our troubles develops in us a divine power 
of faith and hope, or that state of mind which enables us to 
create, in spite of the real, a satisfying and sustaining ideal. 
We live by faith. We walk not by sight. The true Christian 
must live, not in the things that he sees, and handles, and knows, 
but in the things which he believes. In the midst of abounding 
prosperity, when the visible seems to be all that we need, it is 
hard for us to live upon the invisible ; but when God visits us 
with adversity, and sweeps away all our visible supports, then 
we find ourselves obliged to live upon the invisible. 



JUNE 10 : MORNING. 

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 
— Psalm xci., 11. 

There is an angel ministry. Its range, its methods of ad- 
ministration — in short, the diocese and duty thereof — God 
knows, and man does not. But it has been the testimony of the 
Bible from the beginning, and the faith of the church universal 
. from the beginning, that there is an angel ministry. It is not 
a modern doctrine ; it is as old as the patriarchs, and older. 
Angels preluded the Savior, appeared to him in his anguish 
with comforts, and guarded his sepulchre. They ministered 
to his apostles. One stood by Paxil on the eventful night of 
tempest and despair. And that time Paul saw him. Often, 



260 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

however, they minister, without a doubt, when they are not 
seen. God gives his angels charge, it is said, to bear up his 
chosen ones, lest they dash their foot against a stone. The 
angels of the Lord encamp around about his people. They are 
ministering or serving spirits — that is, they are helpful ones, 
sent to minister to them that are heirs of salvation. 

And is there care in heaven ? And is there love 

In heavenly spirits to these creatures base, 
That may compassion of their evils move ? 

There is ; and oh the exceeding grace 
Of highest God, that loves his creatures so, 

And all his works with mercy doth embrace, 
That blessed angels he sends to and fro, 
To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe. 
They for us fight, they watch, and duly ward, 

And their bright squadrons round about us plant, 
And all for love, and nothing for reward ; 
Oh, why should heavenly God to men have such regard ! 



JUNE 10 : EVENING. 
Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. — Jer. xv., 1G. 

There is that in the Bible which will keep it intact and 
make it potential as long as there is a heart to feel sorrow or 
to beat with hope. It is its humanity. It is its courage. It 
is the might and power of its love. It is the vast sympathy 
which wraps mankind as the atmosphere wraps the globe. It 
is its thought and care for men in all their wants. For the 
poor, the needy, the weak, the helpless, the crying, the sighing, 
the discouraged, the downtrodden, the unvictorious, the cap- 
tives, little children, mighty monarchs, peasants, nobles — for 
all men — there is here a throb and a yearning. There are thou- 
sands of blessings held out to them — strength, bread, fruit, wa- 
ter, wine, swords, spears — every thing for humanity^-whatev- 
er they need in their masterly struggles in this world. This 
Book is an ark into which men will run, as long as the world 
stands, for succor and consolation. And who should have made 
such a Book as this, as a way cast up on which " the ransomed 
of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and ev- 
erlasting joy upon their heads," if it be not God ? 



JUXE. 



261 



JUNE 11: MORNING. 
The same Lord over all is ricli unto all that call upon him. — Rom. x., 12. 

Christ says that in every burdened hour he is your staff; 
that in every peril he is your rescuer ; that in every temptation 
he is the gate through which you are to escape ; that in every 
sickness he is your physician. Yea, he stands in the portal of 
the grave itself, and declares that he has power over death. 
" Because I live, ye shall live also." He takes the very keys 
of the other life, and opens the door thereof, and stands the 
universal Savior, and with a voice like that of one born to com- 
mand, and clothed with tie supremacy of divine power, he says, 
" Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 

Consider what scope there is in these representations of 
Christ. All our wants for time and for eternity are made to 
point toward and centre in him as their everlasting supply. 
Suppose, then, instead of hunting texts, and attempting to prove 
by force of logic that he is absolutely God, we should take that 
other process, which consists in every day attempting to em- 
ploy him as he is presented to be employed in the New Testa- 
ment; suppose our life should settle this matter; suppose we 
should find in our personal experience evidence of his divinity, 
what would be the effect ? If he feeds you, if he quenches your 
thirst, if he wakes your imagination, if he inspires your sweet- 
est thoughts and feelings, if he sustains you, if he is your vital 
breath and your strength here and your salvation hereafter, 
and you acknowledge what he does, and accept him as what he 
is, then, I ask, can any worship be higher than that which you 
offer to him ? Can you reserve and thing better than you have 
sriven to him ? 



JUNE 11: EVENING. 
Christ Jesus is our peace. — Eph. ii., 14. 
Inteoveesive and analytic self-examination, by persons who 
are incompetent to trace, to connect, or to judge of fugitive 
mental states, is a fertile cause of trouble. Good, innocent, sim- 
ple-minded persons hear their ministers preach about self-exam- 



262 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

ination, and the duty devolving upon them to study their 
motives and analyze then* characters. It would be a good 
thing if they could do it ; but they can not. And yet they un- 
dertake to do it, and direct their minds inward only enough to 
stop the flow of thought — only enough to perplex and turn 
back the course of life. Persons often work exceeding great 
mischief by this pernicious habit of introspection. The fact is, 
there is little in a man that he had better see. When he looks 
inside himself he never promotes peace, and never promotes 
joy. Even when men are competent to examine themselves in 
this way, they never produce any thing by it except humilia- 
tion and suffering. If you wish to have peace, you can get it in 
no way except by looking at Christ Jesus. No man ever yet 
got peace by looking at himself, and no man ever will. 



JUNE 12 : MORNING. 

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 
Romans xiv., 1. 

A man opens a school among the colliers of England — men 
and women that have lived under ground all their lives, and to 
whose darkened minds the light of knowledge has never pene- 
trated. Tidings of this school spread abroad, and some travel- 
er says, " I understand that education is making great strides 
among those colliers, and I will go and see what progress they 
have made." He goes into the school where men and women 
are learning to read, and he hears an old man with gray locks 
that hang down on his shoulders, and with a black finger with 
which he rubs dirt along the book before him, spell " B — a — k 
— e — r, baker." After he has heard the old man spell a few 
such simple words slowly and painfully, he says, " Well, if that 
is your idea of education, then I am done," and goes out in great 
disgust. He thought he was going down to see these poor col- 
liers made into philosophers at a touch, and, instead of that, he 
sees ignorant creatures that have been made to realize their ig- 
norance, and that are willing to creep before they walk, and 
walk before they run, going over rudimentary lessons, in order 
that by-and-by they may have some intelligence. A sensible 



JUNE. 263 

man would rejoice to see these small beginnings of what prom- 
ise to result in enlightenment in the future. 

Now men are colliers when we bring them into the Church. 
They have been in the grimes and mines of sin. They have 
been groveling in the earth ; and to begin a Christian life is 
to be conscious of one's imperfection, and sin, and guilt before 
God. It is to turn round and say, " Who will instruct me in 
the better way ? who will teach me the letters of salvation ?" 
Here is a man beginning with faltering lip to learn the first 
principles of a Christian life, and what cruelty it is for one to 
come in and say, " A Church-member ! That man is what you 
call a saint, is he ?" No, he is not a saint ; he is the rude be- 
ginning of that which, when God shall lead him through some 
years- of earthly discipline, and then take him home to himself, 
shall glow in the light of heaven. Then and there he will be a 
saint, but only then and there. 



JUNE 12 : EVENING. 

Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the 
transgression of the remnant of his heritage ? he retaineth not his anger for- 
ever, because he delighteth in mercy. — Micah vii., 18. 

Oh that men had faith to discern what treasure of goodness 
is in thee, O God ; what resources of power are thine ; what 
wondrous helpfulness thou hast ; how thou art the all-nursing 
God as well as the God of judgment; how thou art the pity- 
ing God as well as the God of inflexible righteousness ; how 
thou dost teach as well as rebuke ; how thou dost bear up in 
thine arms the trembling and the sinful, as well as carry the 
iron sceptre for thine adversary. Wondrous art thou ; blessed 
in thy justice, in thy purity, and in thy truth. Thou art thy- 
self the pledge that wickedness shall not dwell forever in thy 
realm. Sorrow, and sighing, and tears, and sickness shall flee 
away, and the former things shall be found no more, because 
thou art strong, and wise, and just — a God of righteousness 
and of judgment. Who shall abide thy coming, and who shall 
abide thine administration ? Thou art a God of mercy to heal 
the sinful, to bind up the wounded, to give life to the dead, to 
do all in all, that we may become the sons of God. 



264 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JUNE 13 : MORNING. 

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, 
I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. — 1 Cor. xiii., 1. 

All religion that fails to produce love is imperfect, and so 
far false. Love to Christ is the one indispensable element. If 
every thing is gained but this, religion is like the gold setting 
from which the diamond has dropped out. Love is not only im- 
portant, but essential. It is so vital that if it be present — this 
true love — it carries with it all privilege, all promise, and all 
prerogative. If it be absent, nothing can take its place. There 
is no equivalent nor substitute for it. All is void if there be not 
love. Apostolicity is nothing, reverence is nothing, sincerity 
is nothing, if this element is lacking. A religion which results 
in true and abiding love, no matter how it expresses itself, no 
matter how heretical it is, no matter how it is organized, no 
matter what ordinances are present and what are absent — such 
a religion is divine ; and all that profess it, and have it — grace 
be upon them. They love the Lord Jesus Christ with incor- 
ruptible, undying love. But the human soul that is without 
personal union with God is sunless and summerless, and can 
never blossom nor ripen. 

JUNE 13 : EVENING. 

The merciful man doeth good to his own soul ; but he that is cruel troubleth 
his own flesh. — Prov. xi., 17. 

Thejre is apt to grow up in us a conceit in reference to our 
work. We get on the wrong side of our own labor oftentimes. 
We think we have given a good deal when we have watched 
and prayed long and earnestly for others, when we have given 
time and money, when we have suffered buffet. Our pride or 
vanity hardly fails to keep a little account of these things. 
And we rather assume the air of benefactors. We think, 
" How much have I done !" And sometimes there is the lan- 
guage of complaint: "Why should one who has done so much 
as I have be treated as I am?" There is a kind of injured in- 
nocence that we put on. 



JUNE. 265 

Now there never was a person that did any thing worth do- 
ing who did not really get more than he gave. This is pre- 
eminently true where the good which you do is less and less 
physical, and more and more moral and spiritual ; but no man 
ever rendered discreetly even any bodily service to another 
that he was not more blessed than that other. No man ever 
discreetly gave away a dollar that that dollar did not make 
him happier than it did the recipient. No person ever watched 
with the sick, sympathized with the sorrowing, or carried bur- 
dens and bore cares for other people, who, if he would scrutinize 
his experience, would not say, " The happiness that it gave me 
more than repaid me for all my trouble." 



JUNE 14 : MORNING. 

I waited patiently for the Lord ; and he inclined unto me, and heard my 
cry. — Psalm xl., 1. 

If my child asks me for a tuberose, though I plant a bulb 
immediately, and comply with his request at the earliest pos- 
sible moment, months necessarily elapse before he gets the 
flower. So our prayers are not answered at once, not because 
God would tantalize us, but because the things for which we 
ask are often so large, and require such a development, that 
there is of necessity a space between asking and the getting. 

I believe that the prayers that my mother uttered over me 
have never forsaken me, from the time she died to this hour. 
If convinced of any thing, I am convinced that praying ances- 
tors have been the occasion of my prosperity and usefulness ; 
and I love to think, especially, that my mother prayed for me. 
I know that she set me apart, in the cradle, for God's uses and 
purposes. I know that she opened the path to heaven, and 
made it bright wfth the sacred feet of faith, as she walked daily 
up and down between the cradle and the throne of the Eternal 
Father. I am what I am because God gave me such a mother, 
and because she sent up so many prayers for me. In heaven 
they have hung, and they are pouring down showers of bless- 
ings on my head all the time ; and I believe that they will not 
be spent to the day when I join her and that sainted host with 



266 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

whom she dwells. I believe that if there is any thing that God 
will not forget, it is a mother's prayers. 



JUNE 14 : EVENING. 

Turn, backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you.— 
Jer. iii., 14. 

If any say, "How can purity be pleased with impurity? 
How can God be pleased with that which he must needs look 
upon if he becomes companionable with the human soul ?" you 
know, and I know how he can. You know, and I know, that we 
love, and love dearly, those that not only are full of faults, but 
that are rude and impure. Woe be to children if it were not 
possible to love those that are inferior, and poor, and bad. But 
every mother's heart, every father's heart, has learned the di- 
vine lesson, has learned this law by which to interpret the di- 
vine nature itself, in this, that we learn to love children, not 
so much for what they are as for what they are to be. Over 
and above that mere blind impulse by which we love infants — 
the mere love of offspring — is companionable love. Every man 
is conscious in regard to his children, and I trust, also, in a large 
sphere, in regard to many of his friends, that the love he bears 
to them is not love of their faults, but love in spite of their 
faults. We sec through fault the coming virtue. We see 
through blemish the dawning beauty. When, in the orchard 
and in the gardens, lying far northward, the russet cloak of 
winter first began to unbuckle, and let out the blossoming 
buds, and all the trees stood, not yet beautiful, but with a faint 
color, prophesying the coming of beauty, on the tip of petal 
and leaf, we, looking upon them, saw nothing but the russet 
brown, and yet we rejoiced in the coming blossoms by anticipa- 
tion. And so it is in every household of virtuous and intelligent 
parentage. So is it, also, in God's greater household. Men are 
looked upon in all their rudeness, in all their imperfections ; 
but these are the nascent states, the struggling states, the states 
that are working toward something higher. There is manhood 
beyond. There is something yet for wdiich the soul is reach- 
ing and striving. And these very battles and defeats which it 
has here are all of them on the way to something higher and 



JUNE. 267 

better. Men see it in a small way in their own households ; 
God in a larger way in the whole race. 



JUNE 15 : MORNING. 
In the night his song shall be with me. — Psalm xlii., 8. 

I do not know which is the most beautiful thing to see, a rich 
man, humble as a child, and using his place with gentleness and 
humility, nonthinking of himself, nor thinking of his own glory, 
but making himself a benefactor to every body that draws near 
to him ; or to see a man so poor that poverty despises him, and 
yet not humbled a particle by it ; to see a man that has such 
a sense of the dignity of the Christhood in him that he walks 
among men with an unblenching face, every inch a man among 
them. Though he goes with rags, he has that in him for which 
Christ died ; he has that in him which allies him to the God- 
head. And why should he hang his head, or be ashamed of his 
poverty ? Christian self-respect and Christian conscious power 
among the very poor, and Christian humility, and Christian 
gentleness, and purity, and sweetness among the rich — set these 
two pictures over against each other, and see which-is the hand- 
somer. Put them together, and let them stand there. The 
one is as handsome as the other. 

One of the letter-writers, who have been the true historians 
of our war, narrates the fact that at Gettysburg, after the ter- 
rific cannonading which took place on the third day, when some 
four hundred cannon answered each other on Cemetery Ridge, 
there came a sudden lull, as the enemy were about to make a 
charge ; and that the birds, having been scared out of the peach- 
trees, out of all the fruit and shade trees, by the fearful uproar, 
came, one by one, gently flying back ; and that, during this 
momentary lull, the sparrows opened their mouths and began 
to sing again. Right in the midst of blood, right in the midst 
of ten thousand bleeding corpses, and when the echo had hard- 
ly died out of the heavens, these sweet birds were singing. 

I think it is just so with troubles, and trials, and temptations 
in the world. If men that have carried themselves into the 
shock and into the terrific conflicts of human life have had this 



268 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

power which Paul had, no sooner is there a pause or a moment's 
peace, than up there spring in them birds that begin to sing 
again. They never are far from the singing of the birds who 
have faitb, and hope, and love dominant in their souls. 

Father, beneath thy sheltering wing 

In sweet security we rest, 
And fear no evil earth can bring, 

In life, in death, supremely bless'd. 
For life is good, whose tidal flow 

The motions of thy will obeys ; 
And death is good, that makes us know 

The love divine that all things sways. # 

JUNE 15 : EVENING. 
Partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. — Col i., 12. 

The heavenly state is the state of glory, because it is purified 
to such a degree that every volition and thought of one excites 
the admiration of others. When you live in that state you will 
diffuse joy among others by the admirableness of your moral 
conduct, and you will receive joy from the admirableness of 
their moral conduct. Having learned the lessons of this mor- 
tal state and escaped from it's lower thralldoms, having come 
into the spiritualities of the heavenly realm; having, above all, 
been touched by the divine life and brought into sympathy 
with God, you shall rise, with the elect of God, into that blessed 
land where each one shall be the theme of joy and praise of 
every other; where detraction, and deception, and jealousy, 
and bitterness shall be unknown ; where every one shall be 
crystalline, and radiant, and sweet to the utmost extent of the 
imagination, and where every pulsation of the hearts of those 
who circle about him who is the centre of that land shall be 
pulsations of joy. 

God grant that, by patient continuance in well-doing, you 
may seek for glory, and honor, and immortality; that, finding 
them, God may give you aii eternal life therein. 



JUNE 16 : MORNING. 
Mighty to save. — Isaiah lxiii.,1. 
I understand the Lord Jesus Christ to take men, not be- 
cause when they are converted they are clean, but because 



JUNE. 269 

they are willing to be taken. He takes them in all their poor- 
ness, and leanness, and irregularities, and says, " I am willing 
to carry you and bear with you through your whole life if I 
can see that in the end my love and patience will bring you 
into the enjoyment of the eternal inheritance." 

It is that cleaning, forgiving, enduring, remedial love of 
Christ Jesus that gives a man hope. When wrong rises up in 
me, I feel that there is something higher than that. When my 
sins lie in the horizon, I see also in the horizon a Sun that turns 
all my sins into clouds of glory. It is the faithfulness of Christ, 
and the wonderful power of Christ's love to redeem men finally 
from all sin, that gives me hope and comfort. I am encouraged, 
not because I am good, but because I am in the hand of one who 
will never leave me nor forsake me. 

There is an amplitude, and power, and grandeur, and glory 
in the love of Christ, in which the poorest man, if he is only 
conscious of what a Master he has, can stand up and say, 
" Though I be sinful, I rejoice in the Lord." 

JUNE 16 : EVENING. 

Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that oheyeth the voice of his serv- 
ant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light ? let him trust in the name 
of the Lord, and stay upon his God. — Isaiah 1. , 10. 

A great many persons have said to me, " I can not under- 
stand how there should be a special providence of God. I can 
not reconcile the theory of special providences with my ideas 
of general law and of God's agency in nature." That is to say, 
when God lays down an unquestionable command, of the most 
explicit kind, unless you can go behind that command, and can 
find out the philosophy of it, you will not accept it at his hands. 
Simply as a thing commanded by your Father, you will not, 
with the faith of a child, accept it. If you can spin it on your 
wheel, and then weave it in your loom, and make it conform to 
your pattern, you will accept it ; but as simply from the hand 
of God, you will not accept it. 

Now I like to reason ; I like to search out results from 
causes ; but it is sweet for a man, in the midst of the turmoils 
and troubles of life, where he can, to rest himself on his faith in 



270 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

God. It is sweet for a man to be able to say, " I do not care 
for to-morrow. I do not fear what shall befall me. I will trust 
in God." To understand the philosophy of a divine command, 
where I can, affords me satisfaction ; but where a command 
comes from such authority, and with such variety of illustra- 
tion in nature as this one, I do not care whether I understand 
the philosophy of it or not. My soul is hungry for it, and I 
accept it because my God has given it. I trust and rest in 
God simply because he has said, " You may, and you must." 
That is ground enough. 



JUNE 17: MORNING. 
Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.— 
Levit. xix., 17. 

Wickedness which a man can prevent, and which he does 
not prevent, inculpates him. We are not morally responsible 
simply for the wickedness which we do, but for the wickedness 
which we can prevent as well. In an important sense it is true 
that men are responsible for mischief which they could have hin- 
dered. If you put the torch to your neighbor's house, you are 
guilty in one way; but if another puts the torch to that house, 
and you go by, and see the flames, and say, "It is not my busi- 
ness ; I did not kindle that fire ; and, besides, he is an enemy of 
mine," you are culpable in another. If you are impelled by a 
feeling of animosity, and you strike a dagger to a rival's breast, 
of course you are a murderer and an assassin ; and if you know 
that another man is going to do it, and do not interfere and 
stop him — if you permit the act to go on under your eye with- 
out raising your voice or lifting a finger, then you become a 
party in the crime, and the guilt rests on you. Men bring 
upon themselves the guilt, either in part or in whole, of what- 
ever evil they can stop and do not stop. 

JUNE 17 : EVENING. 
She hath done what she could. — Mark xiv., 8. 

Some farms are prairie land, on which there are no trees, but 
which are covered with a tough sward, to subdue which re- 



JUNE. 271 

quires a great deal of culture. Some are so wet that they need 
much draining. Some have a great many rocks scattered over 
their surface, so that a vast amount of blasting is necessary. 
Some are covered with thorns, and brambles, and shrubs, which 
are to be grubbed out. Some are rich, and some are poor. 

Now men are farms, and God is the great husbandman, and 
he expects they will produce harvests according to their nature. 

You are trying to plant for God. God is just and kind in 
his judgment, and he says that if, according to the powers you 
have, you are endeavoring to serve him, he will accept what 
you bring to him, whether it be a rich harvest or but a few 
flowers. And he will give you remuneration, not according to 
what you have given him, but according to the greatness of 
the heart to which you have given. 

Master, behold my sheaves ! 
Full well I know I have more tares than wheat — 
Brambles and flowers, dry stalks, and withered leaves ; 
Wherefore I blush and weep, as at thy feet 
I kneel flown reverently, and repeat, 
"Master, behold my sheaves !" 

I know these blossoms, clustering heavily 

With evening dew upon their folded leaves, 
Can claim no value nor utility, 
Therefore shall fragrancy and beauty be 
The glory of my sheaves. 

So do I gather strength and hope anew ; 

For well I know thy patient love perceives 
Not what I did, but what I strove to do ; 
And though the full ripe ears be sadly few, 
Thou wilt accept my sheaves. 



JUNE 18 : MOBNING. 

Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, 
and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had com- 
passion on thee. — Mark v., 19. 

Some of the most precious experiences that ever grew on the 
boughs of the human soul you have had, but have never utter- 
ed. You have never told them even to your companion. Fre- 
quently husband and wife are ignorant of each other's richest 
experiences. We do not talk enough one to another about 
these things. As we go through life, God is doing exceeding 



272 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

abundantly more for us than we ask or think in every way; 
and there is great comfort and evangelizing power in his grace, 
but it lies dead. Neighbors should talk with neighbors, and 
acquaintances with acquaintances. If you talk with strangers, 
it should be with deference to their feelings. It should be with 
a consciousness that you are invading their personality. You 
should honor them while you speak to them. Your business is 
to make men feel the sweetness there is in religion ; and if 
you talk of some real experience of your own, you will not be 
likely to go amiss. 



JUNE 18 : EVENING. 

For we have not a high-priest which can not be touched with the feeling 
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without 
sin.— Heb. iv., 15. 

All attempts to live a religious life which leave out this liv- 
ing, personal, present sympathy of the Christ-heart with our 
human heart, will be relatively imperfect. Men's lives will be 
imperfect enough at any rate, but when they neglect this vital 
inspiration, it seems scarcely possible to live at all with religious 
comfort. Our religious joy never springs from the conception 
of what we are, but of what God is. No man's life, attain- 
ments, purposes, or virtues can yield him full peace. It is the 
conviction that we are loved of God personally, by name and 
nature, with a full divine insight of our real weakness, wicked- 
ness, and inferiority, that brings peace. Nor will this become 
settled and immovable until men know and feel that God loves 
them from a nature in himself, from a divine tendency to love 
the poor and sinful, that he may rescue and heal them. God is 
called a sun. His heart, always warm, brings summer to the 
most barren places. He is inexhaustible in goodness, and his 
patience is beyond all human conception. If he is our friend 
and lover, if he conducts our life from a fidelity that belongs to 
his nature, and not from reasons existing in us, then our trust 
will stand in the majesty and certainty of divine goodness, and 
not in unworthy moral conditions in ourselves. 



JUNE. 273 



JUNE 19 : MORNING. 

Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto 
perfection ; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, 
and of faith toward God. — Heb. vi., 1. 

No man ought to be contending with the same evil propen- 
sities all the time. He ought to be continually rising to high- 
er and higher conflicts. To be fighting late in Christian life 
is a sign that you have not been taught aright, and have not 
known what was wisdom. And yet how many of us can say 
that our old conflicts are all ended ? 

If you go into the house of an old baron, you will see hang- 
ing up in the hall the trophies of the victories that he has 
achieved over wild beasts: here a stag's head; there the hide 
of a wolf; there the tusk of a boar; and these are evidences of 
the old baron's valor, the proofs of his conquests. 

Now go into the house of your experience. Where is the 

grinning head of that wolf passion, hung up as a memento of 

your victory? How many memorials have you of conflicts 

that you have successfully waged ? How many trophies have 

you of your baronial skill ? Are you not hunting the same 

beasts that you were in early life? Are you not about as 

proud, and vain, and avaricious as ever ? You have varnished 

your old disposition; you sing hymns over the sepulchre in 

your soul; but is not that sepulchre filled with bones, and 

dust, and hideous passions ? Is your religion any thing more 

than a mere getting along as well as you can with pas&ons that 

have not been tamed? What acchievements have you made 

in cross-bearing ? What rebellious faculties have you crucified 

that do not need to be crucified again ? 

Jesu, victor over sin, 
Help me now the fight to win. 
Thou didst vanquish once, I know, 
Him who seeks my overthrow ; 
So to thee my faith will cleave, 
And her hold will never leave, 
Till the weary battle's done, 
And the final triumph won ; 
For I, too, through thee may win, 
Victor over death and sin. 

s 



274 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JUNE 19: EVENING. 

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleas- 
ure.— Phil, ii., 13. 

Many Christians, who are but partially enlightened, think 
that they may have Christian experiences and graces simply 
for the asking. They think, if they want joy, all they will have 
to do will be to go to God and say, " Dear Lord, give me joy." 
Joy can be had, but you can not have it without establishing 
the causes that produce it. You want to be aspiring, and you 
go and ask God for aspiration, and think it will be given you 
without any task on your part. Nay, verily. If you want joy 
and aspirations, you shall have them, provided you do the 
things that lead to them. A man goes and asks God to give 
him patience, and thinks God will teach him, and say, "Be 
thou patient." No, God Avill not. But in his home, in his bus- 
iness, in his work, wherever he is, God will give him opportu- 
nities to practice patience. And thus he answers our prayers 
by working in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure. 

So it is with every Christian grace. You can not pray meek- 
ness into yourselves. There is not a single Christian grace 
that you can acquire except in accordance with this great law 
of God, that you are to have what you earn. 



• JUNE 20: MORNING. 

He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. — 1 John ii., 10. 

Perhaps one half of the uncertainties of men, and of their 
anxieties about their personal experience, arise from their seek- 
ing religion as a selfish stimulant. They want evidence that 
their sins are forgiven for the sake of the joy that will spring 
out of it. They want evidence of Christ's presence with them 
on account of the delight that it will afford them. They want 
assurance of adoption, rapture in worship, joy in meetings, 
stimulus in preaching — they want every thing that will play 
music on their soul. They are seeking experiences that shall 
be radiant, and eminent, and full of joy. 



JUNE. 275 

If people, instead of seeking joyful experiences for ^hem- 
selves, would seek to make other people's experiences joyful ; 
instead of seeking to get rid of their own burdens, would seek 
to bear the burdens of others ; instead of examining whether 
they are in the true way, would seek to bring back to the fold 
of Christ those that have wandered from it — would seek to do 
good rather than to be good, they would accomplish both ob- 
jects. They would find that doing good is the shortest road 
to being good, and that contributing to the welfare and happi- 
ness of others is the shortest road to securing their own wel- 
fare and happiness. 



JUNE 20 : EVENING. 

Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing 
unto Zion ; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head : they shall obtain 
gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. — Isa. li, 11. 

Of all battles, there are none like the unrecorded battles of 
the soul. Without banners spread or trumpets sounded, with 
no visible conflict and clash of arms, God and angels know that 
the fiercest and bitterest strifes of the universe are those which 
are waged in the secret places of men's souls, where the earth- 
ly, sensual, and beastly elements of human nature are in con- 
flict with that which is pure, and sweet, and spiritual in them. 
These are the battles that God registers, which are going on in 
men, and which, blessed be God, issue, or may issue in the 
" peace which passeth all understanding," in that land where 
love, and conscience, and faith, and hope appear, chanting the 
song of victory, and wearing upon their heads the laurel wreath, 
and where selfishness, and pride, and passion are humbled to 
become the servants of the soul, and no longer to be its despots 
and masters. 

a When the combat ends, and slowly 

Clears the smoke from out the skies, 
Then, far down the purple distance, 

All the noise of battle dies. 
When the last night's solemn shadows 

Settle down on you and me, 
May the love that never faileth 

Take our soids eternally. 



276 MORNING- AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JUNE 21 : MORNING. 

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord 
thy God which he hath given thee. — Deut. xvi., 17. 

You are rich if you have a hundred dollars over and above 
what you need for the support of life. You are not to measure 
yourself by a man that is worth a hundred thousand, and say, 
"He ought to use his riches according to the Word of God: he 
has enough and to spare. I have only a poor hundred more 
than I need for my bare necessities, and I can not be expected 
to part with that." The divine command is, Beware lest ye be 
rich and lay up treasure to yourselves, and are not rich toward 
God. If you have a surplus of one thousand dollars, the com- 
mand is to you ; if you have a surplus of ten thousand, it is to 
you ; if you have'a surplus of ten hundred thousand, it is not a 
whit more to you. 

Now, my Christian brethren, are you rich toward God in the 
proportion in which you have been increasing your worldly 
wealth ? Unless your sympathies increase, unless your chari- 
ties increase, unless your disposition to benefit your fellow- 
men increases in the proportion in which your riches increase, 
you can not walk the life you are walking without falling un- 
der the condemnation of the teaching of Christ. Your life is 
one of getting, getting, getting ; and there is but one safety- 
valve to such a life : it is giving, giving, giving. 



JUNE 21: EVENING. 
Better the day of death than the day of one's birth. — Eccles. vii., 1. 

When the apple-tree blossoms you laugh, and you do not 
cry when you pick the apple ; but when man blossoms man 
laughs, and then, when God picks the fruit, he crie*. Why, 
your child is not your child till you have lost him. That which 
you can put your arms about is that which you can not af- 
ford to love. No bird cries when the shell is broken and the 
birdling comes forth, or when, a little later, it leaves the nest, 
and wings its way through the air. Only mothers do that 
when their children, released from earth, fly away to a better 



JUNE. 211 

world. And yet only they are worthy of immortal love that 
escape from the clog of this mortal state. 

Now let ns thank God, not that men die, but that they live. 
So far as it pleases God to develop and endow them, let us be 
glad ; but when they go to a better realm, let us say, " Thank 
God they have gone where they shall be perfect ; they have 
blossomed and are bearing fruit." Is not this the Christian 
way ?" 

Death has not slain them ; they are freed, not slain. 

It is the gate of life, and. not of death 
That they have entered ; and the grave in vain 
Has tried to stifle the immortal breath. 

All that was death in them is now dissolved, 

For death can only what is death's destroy ; 
And when this earth's short ages have revolved, 

The disimprisoned life comes forth with joy. 



JUNE 22 : MOBNING. 

And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that 
Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of oint- 
ment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet 
with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, 
and anointed them with the ointment. — Luke vii., 37, 38. 

Let every man who is going to begin a Christian life pursue 
the same course that she pursued. Let every man whose ear 
has been reached by the truth, and whose conscience and heart 
have been touched by the Spirit of God, reform as she reformed. 
How was that ? Did she — this child of a guilty life — after 
hearing the Master, go away to the silence of her own cham- 
ber, and say, " I will return to virtue ?" No. Without asking 
permission, with the intrusiveness of a heart bent on purity, she 
mingled herself at once with the train of Christ's disciples ; and, 
all unasked, she pressed through the portals of the proud man's 
dwelling as Christ her Lord sat at meat ; and, while filled with 
a sense of her own deep need, stood waiting, until at last, sur- 
charged, she broke forth in an anguish of tears. When she 
came to Christ first, she came to the right one ; and going to 
him, it was to his feet. Come ye to Christ. Come to the feet 
of Christ. 

And oh friend ! do as she did : for when she came, she took 



278 



MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



the precious ointment, by which she had made herself beautiful 
for sin — the instrument of her transgression — and consecrated 
it to holy uses, pouring it upon the feet of the Beloved, wor- 
shiping him, and weeping as she worshiped. Bring whatever 
you have used before in the service of sin, and at the feet of 
the Beloved bow down yourselves with holy desires, and con- 
secrate your powers, within and without, to the service of Him 
who loved you, and redeemed you, that he might present you 
spotless before the throne of his Father and your Father. 
Come to Jesus. 

JUNE 22 : EVENING. 
For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, 
but also to suffer for his sake. — Phil, i., 29. 

I remember once being called to see a sick girl, who was, 
perhajDS, seventeen or eighteen years of age. A gentleman in- 
formed me that she had been sick for twelve months, and that 
she had become quite disconsolate. Others said, " Go and see 
her, for if any body ought to be comforted she ought to be. 
She has the sweetest disposition, and she is the most patient 
creature imaginable ; and you ought to hear her talk. One 
can hardly tell whether she talks or prays. It is heaven to 
go into her room." I wanted a little more of the spirit of 
heaven, so I went to see her. I was engaged in a revival of re- 
ligion at the time. She said, " I hear of what you are doing, 
and of what my companions are doing, and I long' to go out 
and labor for Christ ; and it seems very strange to me that 
God keeps me here on this sick-bed." "My dear child," said 
I, " do you not know that you are preaching Christ to this 
whole household, and to every one that knows you? Your 
gentleness, and patience, and Christian example are known and 
read by them all. You are laboring for Christ more effectu- 
ally than you could any where else." Her face brightened; 
she looked up without a word, and doubtless she gave thanks 
to God, and angels sang more sweetly than before. 

Now do you seem to yourself to be useless, and say, " Oh 
that I was eloquent. Oh that I could wield the pen of a ready 
writer. Oh that it was given to me to go forth and be an 
le of Christ." It is given to every one of you to be an 



JUNE. 279 

epistle of Christ, known and read of all men. By your humil- 
ity, by your truthfulness, by your justice, by all the things that 
make you like Christ, you become his minister, and you are 
known and read where you never suspect that you are being- 
known and read. Take care, then, and speak right things of 
Christ. See to it that the testimony you bear of Christ is such 
as he would have you bear. 



JUNE 23 : MORNING. 
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to- 
morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, ye of little 
faith?— Matt.vl, 30. w 

If God takes care of birds and flowers, will he not take care 
of us ? May we not at least have such an assurance of God's 
watchfulness over us that we can shake hands with care, and 
say, " I never will know you again ?" May we not have such 
a trust in God that we can bid good-by to anxiety, and say, " I 
never will again bear your despotic burden ?" Was it not for 
the very purpose of giving us such an assurance and such a 
trust that Christ gave us the promise of the text ? Did he not 
design that we should rid ourselves of the harassing solicitudes 
and troubles of life ? Did not Christ mean that every day, 
when we lifted up our eyes, and beheld the flowers and birds, 
we should recognize a remembrancer, saying to us, " Are ye not 
much better than they ? And if I love them, and care for them, 
do I not love you, and care for you ?" 

Did God ever die for birds ? Did he ever lay down his life 
for flowers, for the grass, or for the trees ? But for us he did. 
And, rising, will he forget that for our sakes he himself was for- 
gotten and laid in the sepulchre ? By how many direct affir- 
mations, by how many commands, by how many of these glan- 
cing and suggestive images is this lesson brought home to us, 
and yet there is no other thing so little heeded. 

The child leans on its parent's breast, 
Leaves there its cares, and is at rest ; 
The bird sits singing by his nest, 

And tells aloud 
His trust in God, and so is bless'd 

'Neath every cloud. 



280 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

The heart that trusts forever sings, 
And feels as light as it had wings ; 
A well of peace within it springs, 

Come good or ill : 
Whate'er to-day, to-morrow, brings, 

It is his will ! 



JUNE 23 : EVENING. 

Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read : no one of these shall fail, 
none shall want her mate : for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it 
hath gathered them.— Isaiah xxxiv., 16. 

How sweet are thy words unto my taste ! yea, sweeter than honey to my 
mouth.— Psalm cxix., 103. 

As there are always among violets some that are very much 
sweeter to us than others, so among texts there are some that 
are more precious to us than others. When I go to the Bible, 
it is not once in a hundred times that I read a whole chapter 
for my own devotions. As one that goes out into the field to 
rest does not take the first spot that presents itself, but waits 
till he finds a nook where the mosses, and the flowers, and the 
shrubs are right, and then sits down and feasts his eyes on the 
beauties around, so I wander along till I come to a passage 
which, though I can not tell why, I read over, and over, and 
over again. One or two verses or sentences perhaps will lin- 
ger in my head all day, like some sweet passage in a letter, or 
like some felicitous word spoken by a friend, coming and going 
all the time. I find often that one single text, taking posses- 
sion of the mind in the morning, and ringing through it during 
the whole clay, does one more good than the reading of a whole 
chapter. Frequently some one thing that Christ said fixes it- 
self in my mind, and remains there from morning till night. 



JUNE 24 : MORNING. 

Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifleth — 1 Cor. viii., 2. 

We are to hold knowledge and to impart it in such a way 

that it shall edify or build up men in honor, in love, in duty, in 

rectitude. Our pleasures are subject to the same law. In 

spite of yourself, you are woven into society. You can not 



JUNE. 281 

therefore say, "It is nobody's business what I do." What you 
do is the business of every body who is within the reach of 
your touch. Yonder oak may say, " It is nobody's business 
how I grow ;" but there is a feeble plant trying to grow under 
it, and it is that plant's business how the oak grows. In the 
kingdom of mere conscience it may be nobody's business what 
you do, but in the kingdom of love it is the business of every 
one whom you touch what you do. Therefore, in your speak- 
ing, in your writing, in your pleasuring, in your social inter- 
course, in whatever you do, you are to bear in mind that your 
conduct is to be made subservient to the welfare of your fellow- 
men. You are not to live for yourself alone, but for others. 

Let us do what we can for edification. It will make our lives 
sweeter and happier. Let us be continually actuated by this 
thought: How shall I build myself up in a Christian manhood, 
and how shall I exercise my rights and liberties so that I shall 
build men up in such a way as to make them better ? 



JUNE 24 : EVENING. 

Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider 
their latter end! — Deut. xxxii., 29. 

How desolate must old age be to the man who has no heaven 
beyond ; who stands trembling with infirmities, declined in ear, 
and eye, and tongue, his hand palsied, his memory gone, look- 
ing back across the dreary stretch of life that he has just passed 
over, and forward with fear to the life of. which he thought so 
little. How glorious for an old man to stand, as Moses stood, 
upon the top of the mount, looking across the Jordan into the 
promised land, and viewing the fair possessions that awaited 
him Moses died, and did not go over ; but the old man shall 
die, and go over, and shall find it in that day a land rich, beau- 
tiful, and glorious. 

If you would come into old age with these transcendent hopes, 
begin the work of preparation early. Live rightly all the way 
through. Do not think that, if you live as you please now, you 
can live as you please then. Live now as you want to live in 
old age. Lay such walls on such foundations and of such ma- 
terials as will support you ; and then, when heart and flesh shall 



282 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

fail, it will only be because God thus breaks open the tenement 
that he may let out the spirit to enter into that high and serene 
existence where there shall be everlasting youth, and where ev- 
erlasting blessedness awaits you. 

What are we set on earth for ? Say to toil ! 

Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines 

For all the heat o' the sun, till it declines, 
And Death's mild curfew shall from work assoil. 
God did anoint thee with his odorous oil 

To wrestle, not to reign ; and he assigns 

All thy tears, ever like pure crystallines, 
Unto thy fellows, working the same soil, 

To wear for amulets. So others shall 
Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand, 

From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer, 

And God's grace fructify through thee to all. 
The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, 

And share its dew-drop with another near. 



JUNE 85 : MORNING. 

The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man 
and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work 
which the Lord had commanded. — Exod. xxxv., 29. 

Many say, " Oh, I wish I could be useful. I want to work 
for the cause of God. Tell me what I can do." 

First of all, free yourself from the conception that doing 
good means a suppression of certain of the faculties of your 
nature. Some of you are very mirthful and humorous, and you 
say, "How can I give up my mirthfulness and humor?" I 
should as soon ask a Spitzenberg to quit tasting good as I 
should ask you to give them up. God, when he gave them to 
you, meant that you should use them for his sake and for the 
sake of your fellow-men. 

God has given many of you imagination. "What is that ? It 
is a candle in a window in a dark night ; it is a light-house on 
a stormy coast ; it is a festive song. And do you say that it 
should be sober and matter-of-fact in religion ? It should not. 
God gave it to you, not that you should use it selfishly, but 
that you might be a missionary of imagination, and go among 
men that are unimaginative and literal, and wreathe it about 
their literalness. Another man says, "I have neither mirthful- 
ness nor imagination." Well, you have courage. Half the 



JUNK 283 

people in the world lack this element, and to every man of 
courage God says, "I ordain you to support the •i^eak." If 
God has given you power to stand up, it is that you may help 
those who have not that power. It is your mission, every 
where you go, to succor those who are discouraged, and teach 
them how to be strong. Still another has not so much courage 
as hopefulness, and God has made him a natural comforter of 
the poor and rich. The poor are always with you, and if you 
have a hopeful disposition, why are you not carrying comfort 
to those who are desponding ? 

Take that in which you are superior to those around you, 
and understand that God makes you responsible for the minis- 
tration of that toward all those with whom you come in contact. 

JUNE 25: EVENING. 

But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the 
Son of God ; and that believing ye might have life through his name.— John 
xx., 31. 

Shall I follow Christ through all my life ; behold his beauty; 
twine about him every affection ; lean upon him for strength ; 
behold him as my leader, my teacher ; feed upon him as my 
bread, my wine, my water of life ; see all things in this world 
in that light which he declares himself to be — in his strength 
vanquish sin, draw from him my hope and inspiration, wear his 
name and love his work, and through my whole life, at his com- 
mand, twine about him every affection, die in his arms, and 
awake with eager uprising to find him whom my soul loveth, 
only to be put away with the announcement that he is not the 
recipient of worship. "Well might I cry out in the anguish of 
Mary in the garden, " They have taken away my Lord, and I 
know not where they have laid him." 

Christ is the soul's bread — eat, ye that hunger. He is the 
water of life — drink, ye that thirst. He is the soul's end — aim 
at him. He is the soul's supreme glory — -yield to every out- 
gush of joy, of enthusiasm of worship that springs up in your 
heart toward him. Those that are in heaven bow down before 
him, and ascribe " Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power 
unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for- 
ever and ever." Let us not fear to do the same. 



284 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JUNE 26 : MOBNINO. 

Jesus said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpreta- 
tion, Sent). He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came back seeing. 
— John ix.,7. 

Suppose that one who, being almost starved, and having 
struggled with starvation through the whole summer, praying, 
every day, " Give me my daily bread," should, in October, dis- 
cover that there were esculent, nutritious roots growing abun- 
dantly in the edge of a wilderness near by, and should say, "It 
seems very strange to me that I should have been suffered to 
want for food, when I prayed, day and night, ' Give me my 
daily bread,' and when these roots were within my reach, if I 
had only known where to go for them ; why did not God tell 
me ?" — you would smile. Suppose a person should say, " Here 
I have been shaking with chills and fever for weeks and months, 
and all the time there has been this Peruvian bark next door, 
with which I might have cured myself, if I had known that it 
would cure me; but I did not know it, though I constantly 
prayed to God to cure me." You would say at once, " No 
prayer will ever bring you medicine. You must know that it 
exists, and then apply it in obedience to natural laws, or it will 
not meet your case." 

Is it so morally ? Yes ; and nothing shows it more plainly 
than the history of the Church and of good men. A man may 
live in needless suffering for forty years, praying to God every 
day, and finding no relief, if God has made provision for his re- 
lief in natural law, while he merely prays, and does nothing 
more. " If any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, 
him he heareth." 



JUNE 26 : EVENING. 

Not that I speak in respect of want : for I have learned, in whatsoever state 
I am, therewith to be content. — Phil, iv., 11. 

" I have learned," says the apostle. It took him forty years 
to learn it, too. And yet how many there are who, though 
they have been only a few years in the Christian life, are dis- 



JUNE. 285 

couraged because they can not put on at once the virtues which 
were the experience of these forty years of the apostle's life. 
They think they are not Christians. They measure themselves 
by certain moral states and attainments that belong to later and 
riper conditions. Why, a man may be a Christian sowing the 
seed-corn of experience, just as much as another man who, hav- 
ing sown, is in the harvest-field reaping ripe ears with his sickle. 
Paul learned contentment. He had a great many trials before 
he learned it. He learned it first in one point, and then in an- 
other. He continued to practice, and was not discouraged or 
thrown back. All his life long he was growing in that direc- 
tion, until at last he came to that power in which he lived open- 
faced at heaven's gate, and the crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous judge, reserved for him, and not for him 
only, but for all of them also that loved the appearing of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, flashed evermore in his view. It was his sun 
by day, and it was his star by night. And this it was that he 
learned in long years of experience. So do not be discouraged 
because you do not learn it in a day, or a week, or a year. Your 
business and privilege is to see that every year you are learn- 
ing more and more; that your faith is stronger in you; and 
that, in some respects, you are gaining. This do, and you may 
be content. 

The seed bursts not to ripened grain in one short summer day, 
The goal is reached by patient steps along the weary way : 
Shall the Christian sink discouraged, and cast his weapons down, 
If the first hour of the conflict brings him not the victor's crown ? 



JUNE 27 : MORNING. 

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God ; for he 
hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the 
robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as 
a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. — Isaiah lxi., 10. 

Is there any thing more beautiful in a lower sjjhere than the 
dressing of a bride for her wedding ? The tender hands of kind 
nurse, of loving sisters, and fond mother — how they all wait 
upon her ! How the hours are consecrated to her glory ! How 
her hair is parted and braided with sweet simplicity ! How the 
veil is thrown over her with exquisite grace ! What bracelets, 



286 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

what rings, what jewels contribute to decorate her person ! It 
is a great thing to go to the toilet-table of a bride in a wealthy 
family, and see what the jewel-box contains. 

Now God has opened the jewel-box with the contents of 
which he dresses his bride, the Church : " Blessed are the poor 
in spirit." " Blessed are they that mourn." " Blessed are tjie 
meek." "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 
righteousness." "Blessed are the merciful." "Blessed are the 
pure in heart." "Blessed are the peacemakers." "Blessed are 
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake." "Blessed 
are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall 
say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice 
and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven : for 
so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." 

Who wants to wear jewels? There they are. Put them on. 



JUNE 27 : EVENING. 

The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? — John 
xviii., 11. 

Does God so comfort you that you are able to bear the yoke 
and to endure the piercing thorn ? And when God enables you 
to bear it, is your first thought this, " I am now admitted into 
the sacred church of the sufferers ; I am now marked with the 
cross, as one that bears for others ; I am lifted up among my 
fellow-men, not to be praised, but that I may go about as my 
Master did, and minister to them the consolations by which I 
myself have been comforted ?" Do not say, " The cup is too 
large and too bitter." Never! The hand that was pierced 
for you takes the cup and gives it to you, and Christ loves you 
too much to give you a cup that you can not drink. Do not 
say, " The burden is too great ; I can not bear it." He that 
loves you as you do not even yourself love yourself — the Re- 
deemer, " the God of all comfort," " the Father of mercies" — 
lays every burden on you ; and he that lays the burden on will 
give you strength to bear it. Take up your cross and follow 
him. Remember the promise : " If we suffer we shall also reign 
with him." 



287 



JUNE 28 : MORNING. 
Do ye thus requite the Lord %—Deut. xxxii., 6. 

If a poor child should meet me in the street with a broken 
and withered flower, I should see the child's heart, not the con- 
dition of the flower, and should thank the child, and should feel 
a strange fragrance, not from the flower itself, but from the 
thought that he wanted to do me a kindness. But ah ! when 
Christ takes his own heart, broken, wounded, bleeding — his sac- 
rifice and his love — and brings it to us, and makes it a present ; 
when, out of his own misery, out of his own degradation, out of his 
own suffering, he proposes to lift us up into everlasting bounty 
and benefit, is there no requital, are there no thanks, is there no 
gratitude due ? When God requires the service of our life and 
the fullness of our heart, is it an exacting requisition ? 



JUNE 28 : EVENING. 

And their eyes were opened, and they knew him ; and he vanished out of 
their sight. — Luke xxiv., 31. 

Hours of religious peace, hours of spiritual delight, never 
seem so precious to us, hours of religious duty are never so 
dear to us, while we have them, and they are, as it were, in 
their ministration, as when they are gone. In our religious life 
we continually find fault with our fare. We are dainty about 
our religious privileges. Or, we are given over to that last 
folly of conceit : we have set ourselves to take care of our 
neighbors' faith. So we crush our grapes to extract wine from 
them, and then we keep the wine until it turns to vinegar on 
our lips. Our heart's blessings — how many there are ! You 
have innumerable hours that bring to you Christ's choicest 
thoughts. Ah ! when your friends shall be no longer about 
you, when you shall be a stranger in a distant settlement, or a 
dweller on the sea, or in a distant land, and heartily homesick 
— then how like stars will those hours seem to you that now 
you pick to pieces and complain of because they bring no joy ! 
Those very hours which you reluctantly gave to the Sabbath- 
day — how you will covet them when you have lost them ! 



288 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Having squandered with discontent the privileges which we 
have now, memory will hoard them, every one, like a miser. 

Oh that wisdom were given us to know what the blessing of 
to-day is, and what the blessing of the hour is, that we may not 
then see what it is, when, like Christ, it vanishes at the moment 
of its disclosure. 

day ! with holy duties thickly blossomed, 
And every blossom dropping precious balm ; 
Sermon and prayer, and sweetly-chanted psalm, 

And privy thoughts, to God alone unbosomed — 

1 would have stayed thee with a fond constraining, 

Fain such an antepast of heaven to eke, 

And stretch its sweetness through the weary week, 
Six days of dearth — to one of bread ! — remaining ; 

But could not clip one pinion of thy flight, 
That borrowed, from thy bliss, an unwont fleetness. 

So while thy beauty fadeth from my sight, 
I must content to win a sacred sweetness 

From thy divinest influence, for all 
The week's sharp toils and cares that to my hap may fall. 



JUNE 29 : MORNING. 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,— Psalm cxi., 10. 
Perfect love casteth out fear. — 1 John iv.,18. 

That tender, tremulous fear that we shall not do all that we 
ought to do, or all that we wish to do, for the honor and the 
pleasure of those whom we love, and whose life is more to us 
than our own, is exquisite, elevating, noble ; but that fear which 
drops far below the sentiments, and moral feelings, and affec- 
tions, and that produces a state of antagonism between a man's 
lower interests and his higher feelings, is paralyzing, demoral- 
izing, unmanly. 

A man that is never afraid to stand up for the right ; that 
is never afraid to say what he thinks ought to be said ; that is 
never afraid to do what he thinks ought to be done ; that now 
is willing, if need be, to stand like Mount Calvary ; that now 
is willing, if need be, to thunder like Mount Sinai ; that can 
follow the dictates of his conscience, and not care for the con- 
sequences — such a man is a pattern of true manliness. One of 
the worst things a man can say, when pursuing a course of 
wickedness in the midst of evil influences, is, " I don't care ;" 
but the best thing a man can say, when pursuing a course of 



JUNE. 289 

rectitude in the midst of Christian influences, is, " I don't care." 
There is an infidel " don't care," which is the devil's net to catch 
the heedless ; and there is a Christian " don't care," which is a 
cord of God to draw men toward heaven. 



JUNE 29 : EVENING. 
Forget not all his benefits.— Psalm ciii., 2. 

You have friends whom you trust; friends who would not 
desert you if you were sick or unfortunate in business ; who 
would, to the extent of their power, stand by you in the dark 
hour ; who would never fail to give you good counsel, and to 
sympathize with you in trouble. But God, the best and most 
inexpressibly precious Friend, whose life is one prolonged, con- 
tinuous benefaction to us, is the very one that we trust the 
least. Though a thousand dark hours have come to us, and 
God has helped us in every one of them, we have failed to car- 
ry along a faithful remembrance of them, so that when the 
threat is in the heaven, we are just as much alarmed as though 
it had never been there a thousand times before. When a 
great sorrow is upon us, we act as though we had never known 
sorrow before, and had never before been delivered from sor- 
row. In the midst of our various experiences of life, how we 
fail to believe that God loves us, that he is faithful to us, and 
that he will never leave us nor forsake us. 



JUNE 30 : MORNING. 
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. — Matt, vi., 19. 

This is not a stroke at riches. It is not undervaluing worldly 
good in its own place. It is substantially saying, " You are 
not beasts, that are born into- life, and live only in this world. 
You are really children of God. You are to have a life so long, 
so noble, and so above all that is in the brute creation, that you 
should live for that other interior and higher life, and not for 
the lower one. Make the higher life and the nobler develop- 
ment the aim; and make this secondary and secular life the 
mere instrument by which you attain that." 
T 



290 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Here, then, is the grand aim. While the great mass of man- 
kind live through the senses for the senses, and in the present 
for the present, exclusively, Christ says, " Do you live for the 
higher, the spiritual, and the eternal life. ' Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness'— -first in the order of 
time, and first in intensity — ' and all these things shall be add- 
ed unto you.'" 

JUNE 30 : EVENING. 
And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, 
and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. — Gen. viii., 15,16. 

Oh what joy, what gladness is there in families whose last 
child is finally converted to Christ ! The floods of temptation 
and sin swell and surge, and threaten the household, and one 
is rescued from danger, and another, and at last the ark of life 
is sent to take the last child, and it is saved. Is it not time to 
bring in the whole of your household? Can you imagine any 
happiness greater than that of the parent who can say, " Christ 
has twice given me my children ; once for this world, and once 
for the world to come. Now, happen what may, nothing can 
befall me or mine, whether poverty or riches, joy or sorrow. 
Pledges of immortality God has given me in my children ?" 
Sing ! sing ! break forth into rejoicing ! There are seldom 
places in this world for such triumphs as there are in such ex- 
periences — experiences of souls renewed and sins forgiven ; in 
these victories of grace, and, above all, these victories of grace 
in the family, where God sanctifies the father's and the moth- 
er's heart, and brings in, one by one, the children. 

Covenant-believing parents, are your children among those 
who are yearning for Jesus Christ, and hoping and singing ? 
Have you done any thing? Have you thought? Have you 
prayed ? Have you asked before the open heart of God, that 
sounds out louder than the ocean in your presence, saying, 
"Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall re- 
ceive ?" Have you asked that your children might be gather- 
ed into the kingdom of Christ ? 

Oh happy house ! whose little ones are given 

Early to thee in faith and prayer — 
To thee, their Friend, who from the heights of heaven 

Guards them with more than mother's care. 



JULY. 291 



Oh happy house ! where little voices 
Their glad hosannas love to raise ; 

And childhood's lisping tongue rejoices 
To bring new songs of love and praise 



JULY I: MORNING. 
Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; 
learn to do well. — Isa. i., 16, 17. 

What repentance, what reformation is possible in your life ? 
Are you willing to look in upon yourselves ? Are you willing 
to search your hearts down to the bottom ? Are you willing 
to question your motives? Are you willing to go into the 
dark chambers of your experience ? Are you willing to call 
God to go with you there ? Are you willing to open the door 
of the sanctuary, and let the whole light of the eternal throne 
blaze upon your secret thoughts and feelings, and say, " God, 
interpret to me my nature, my heart, my life, my character, my 
every thing, that I may bring out whatever is evil in thy sight, 
and, for the sake of the world, sanctify myself, and be a better 
man for the year to come?" It is quite in vain to talk about 
sin in general. Will you search your disposition trait by trait ? 
Will you go all through your business, your pleasures, your af- 
fections, every thing that relates to your happiness or well-be- 
ing, or to your misery and woe, and lay the law of God upon 
every part of your life with this solemn and earnest purpose? 

Let it be so. As the housewife, taking her broom, begins 
and brushes every web, however gauzy, out of the angles, and 
clears every thing off from the windows, and sweeps in every 
corner and nook, and dusts in every alcove, and cleans every 
part, and gathers the collected dirt, and marches it in a battal- 
ion toward the door, and gradually works it through into the 
hall, and across the hall to the outside door, and at last, with 
one blow, sweeps it all out, and bids farewell to it, so let your 
hearts be cleansed. For the sake of God, for the sake of the 
Church, for the sake of the family, and for the sake of the cause 
of God in our day, I call upon you to sanctify yourself. 

And I would have this soul of mine 

Made clean and pure within — 
My Savior's chosen dwelling-place 

Tree from all taint of sin. 



292 MORNING. AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

The work is thine, oh holy Dove ! 

I gladly welcome thee ; 
Come in, bless'd Spirit of the Lord ! 

Possess both mine and me. 



JULYt: EVENING. 

If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them 
that ask himl — Matt, vii., 11. 

Since our conceptions of God are made up of the best con- 
ceptions and experiences of human life, refined and idealized, 
and fashioned by the imagination, they will always be under, 
and never above the reality ; so that the mistakes which might 
be fatal in other measurings are harmless in measuring our God. 
When you argue from a man to God, you are accustomed to 
say, " Ah ! that is not a fair argument — God is a different be- 
ing." "No," says Christ ; " take whatever is good in man, and 
argue that God is not only that, but infinitely better. In fash- 
ioning your conception of God, make it as resplendent in jus- 
tice, as august in truth, as noble and pure in love, as radiant 
and wondrous in pity, and as enduring as you please. Never be 
afraid that you will overdraw the divine character. God is nev- 
er better in your thought or imagination than he is in himself. 
Your descriptions of God will not transcend, but will come 
short of the reality. When your heart is warmest, noblest, 
truest, and best, when it flashes out its ideal conceptions of 
God, that ideal is far more likely to be near the truth than one 
that is coldly, critically, philosophically deduced from definite 
premises. For God's nature really outruns the human capacity 
for reasoning. 



JULY 2: MORNING. 
With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.— 
Psalm lxxxix., 1. 

Bear the precious name of Jesus with you into every part 
of your life ; and in all the experiences which rise up to you in 
that blessed name, do not forget to be grateful at the time. 
Do not forget to have some souvenir and memorial by which 



JULY. 293 

you shall connect these various kindnesses of God, and be able, 
every year, to set up another testimony, and say, " Hitherto 
hath God helped me." And by-and-by, when sickness comes, 
may God grant that you may go through all the region of the 
valley of the shadow of death, saying, " Hitherto hath the Lord 
helped me." When you come to the brink of the river, do not 
shrink. As you go out of our sight, and reach the far shore, 
send back some airy voices to say still, " Hitherto the Lord 
hath helped me." And when you rise and stand in Zion and 
before God, God grant that you may be able to say, in the pres- 
ence of all the holy angels, " Hitherto hath the Lord helped me." 



JULY 2: EVENING. 
Man goeth to his long home. — Eccles. xii., 5. 

Death is but a going home. A child is away at school, and 
the vacation is near at hand; and you may be sure that the 
father and mother long to see the child more than the child 
wants to see father and mother. So, according to the good old 
custom, the father takes the carriage and wends his way to the 
school. In the midst of his tasks on the last day, the child is 
suddenly greeted by the voice and presence of his father; and 
no sooner are the first salutations exchanged than the father 
says, "Are your things ready? we go to-morrow." Wine is 
not so sparkling as the joy in the child's heart. He can nei- 
ther eat, nor sleep, nor play. The thought that his father has 
come, and that he is going home to see his mother, and brothers, 
and sisters, has quite intoxicated him. 

By such glorious images as this God is pleased to represent 
our departure from the present life. The Lord Jesus Christ 
shall come to our poor old weather-stained school-house in this 
world, and say to us, " Come home ; you are wanted." 

Heaven is not a great bleak shore to which you are driven 
by the storm, and where you are cast among savage inhabit- 
ants. Heaven is a blessed place of rest. It is your home. 
You have friends there, the chiefest among whom is he that 
loved you, that gave himself for you, that has ever watched 
over you during your earthly pilgrimage, and that soon, very 
soon will come for you, as already he has for yours. They are 



294 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

glorious there ; and in all their glory, if they could but speak a 
word to us, would it be such a poor stumbling word as that 
which they spoke in the hour of death ? If they could speak 
to us from the eternal world, what hope and consolation would 
they give us ! 

We wait for thee with certain hope — 

The time will soon be over ; 
With childish longing we look up, 
Thy glory to discover. 
Oh bliss ! to share 
Thy triumph there, 
When home, with joy and singing, 
The Lord his saints is bringing. 



JULY 3: MORNING. 

The light of the body is the eye. If, therefore, the eye be single, thy whole 
body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be 
full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great 
is that darkness!— Matt, vi., 22, 23. 

Theee is nothing that God ever gives to a man like a clear- 
eyed, wholesome, sensitive, prophetic, magisterial conscience, 
which shows him the path, even where men's feet have not 
walked, interpreting what is right and what is wrong, and 
keeping him on the side of whatever is good and just, and true 
and pure, and of good report among men or angels. But, 
though this is the greatest gift that God ever makes, it is the 
one that men are most careless about. You may destroy al- 
most every thing else in a man, but so long as you keep that in 
him you have in him the root of manhood. You may destroy 
that, and keep every thing else, and the man will be utterly un- 
done. Christ called it the eye. 

No disaster can befall a man so great as the perversion and 
destruction of the eye of his soul. 

A man may cut away every mast on his ship and yet pursue 
his voyage. A man may have every thing on deck carried 
overboard and yet make some headway. A man in the middle 
of the ocean can afford to lose every thing else better than he 
can afford to lose the compass in the binnacle. When that is 
gone he has nothing to steer by. That little instrument is his 
best friend ; it is his guide. And that conscience which God 



JULY. 295 

has given you is your compass and guide. You can afford to 
lose genius, and taste, and reason, and judgment better than 
that. Keep that as the apple of your eye. Be in love with 
your conscience, and let your conscience be in love with God. 
A conscience held in love is the very foundation not only of a 
spiritual manhood, but of happiness in an earthly manhood. 



JULY 3: EVENING. 

■Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wis- 
dom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. — Rev. v., 12. 

"What will be the glorious disclosure of the divine nature in 
heaven — the lovableness of God, the attractive beauty that 
there is in him, so disclosed by. the Savior? How sweet will 
be that society to which we shall be admitted when we come 
among the innumerable throngs that are transformed to the 
same likeness, and behold what are the endless stores and riches 
of that God who for thousands of years has borne with this 
cancerous world, and made his nature the healing of all the na- 
tions ! How worthy to reign ! how worthy in his holiness ! 
And if it be permitted us to stand at last by his grace and 
power, made like him, who of us will not say, " Thou art worthy 
to reign ?" Ah ! the privilege of enjoying sweet intimacy with 
such a One — glorious, rich, full, and infinite in patience; of be- 
ing inspired by such a One ; of being loved by such a One, and 
of becoming more and more like such a One. How blessed is 
that heaven to which we are going ! how sweet is that society 
into which ere long we shall emerge! how joyous is that meet- 
ing which awaits those who are like God ! 

Who would not go 
With buoyant steps to gain that blessed portal 

Which opens to the land we long to know, 
Where shall be satisfied the souls immortal ; 
Where we shall drop the wearying and the woe 
In resting so. 

Oh, wondrous land ! 
Fairer than all our spirit's fairest dreaming : 

' ' Eye hath not seen" — no heart can understand 
The things prepared, the cloudless radiance streaming. 
How longingly we wait our Lord's command — 
His opening hand. 



296 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JULY 4: MORNING. 
If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. — John viii., 36. 

The men and women that are patriots — who are they? 
Mothers who are bringing up their children in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord — they are writing better Declarations 
of Independence than ever Thomas Jefferson inscribed. Hum- 
ble fathers, who are training their children in essential manli- 
ness, in self-reliance, in independence, making them ashamed to 
beg, and proud to rely upon their own resources — they are pa- 
triots. They are lovers of our country. The humble school- 
mistress, that gathers her summer brood and pours her refined 
life into the bosom of these rustics — she is a patriot. The 
school-master} who stands nearer to the work of God in the 
world, and, in our age, than even the minister himself does — he 
is the patriot. The editor, that is taking knowledge, and giv- 
ing to it multiform wings, and setting it flying round and round 
the world — he is the patriot. Those men who augment the 
substantial qualities of manhood — the preachers of the Gospel; 
the humble missionary ; the colporteur ; the devoted Christian 
in every neighborhood — those men who are working for the 
spiritual development of man — they are God's truest patriots. 

God speed the right ; and from year to year, as this Fourth 
of July comes round, and the national inspiration swells the 
heart, God grant there may be an expression that shall be bet- 
ter than the firing of crackers or the discharge of guns. These 
are welj ; but may the Fourth of July, in every decade of years, 
to us and to our children, more and more 'mean, " We have 
broken the yoke of Satan, and have trodden under foot the 
passions and the appetites, and Christ has made us free." 

JULY A: EVENING. 
I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. — 2 Cor. xii., 15. 

No man knows what divine power or divine peace is until he 
is in sympathy with God, so that he can feel that all things are 
his, because all things are renounced by him. We never have 
such power over nature or over human life as when we are in- 



JULY. 297 

dependent of the one and of the other, and when it is a matter 
of indifference to us whether we live or die, whether we are hon- 
ored or despised, whether we work, or sleep and rest from work. 
To be in such perfect accordance with God as to feel that you 
are willing to spend and be spent, whether it be in a position 
high or low, whether it be in honor or disgrace — this is to be 
in a high sphere. It is to be in an atmosphere without storms. 
One does not need to go to heaven to feel heaven. It comes to 
us in the darkest hours and in the most troublous times. There 
is a peace which passes all understanding, but it is not in con- 
scious virtue or in conscious strength. It is experienced when 
the soul is quickened by a divine sympathy with God, which 
gives a willingness to lay down one's life for the sake of others. 



JULY 5: MORNING. 

Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself : it is not in man that 
walketh to direct his steps. — Jer. x., 23. 

We are fragmentary in our lives. The work of past gener- 
ations is hinged upon this, and the work of this generation is 
hinged upon that of generations to come ; and God sits in sub- 
limity of counsel, putting part with part, so that when we see 
the connected whole, the things that now seem most insignifi- 
cant will shine out in wonderful beauty and magnificence. 

Imagine how Solomon's temple was built, that went up in 
Jerusalem without sound of the hammer. "When the hewer of 
wood, the carver of stone, and the worker in metal, from the 
various seclusions where they had wrought, each on his sepa- 
rate part, came together to see what had been made with all 
the different parts, and saw in the columns, in the cornices, in 
the decorations, in all the paraphernalia of the wonderful tem- 
ple the result of their toil, they stood entranced, and wondered 
that out of things so insignificant in the mountains there should 
come such glory in Jerusalem. 

God has sent some to the cedar forest, some to the stone 
quarry, some to the dark and dank places of this world, but he 
is collecting materials which will glow with untold splendor in 
the temple that he is building for the New Jerusalem. What 



298 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

the issue of life is to be you can not tell now ; but you are 
working for God, and with God, and according to God's plans, 
and ere long you will be summoned to see the result of all 
your work. Before that time you can not tell what that result 
is to be. 

Be not discouraged because it is your lot to be in humble cir- 
cumstances ; because your work is insignificant in the eyes of 
men; because you are called to labor in obscurity. You are 
laborers together with God if your heart is with him, and if 
your will is obedient to his will. Be patient till you shall see 
the meaning of that life, which is a life carried by God, with 
God, and for God. 

No act falls fruitless ; none can tell 

How vast its power may be, 
Nor what results infolded dwell 

Within it silently. 

Work on, despair not, bring thy mite, 

Nor care how small it be ; 
God is with all that serve the right, 

The holy, true, and free. 



JULY 5: EVENING. 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. — John iii., 1G. 

Do not be afraid to bow before Jesus. Oh that cross ! — 
blessed be God, it is the enfranchisement of theology. It 
stands up against heaven to say, "God, with his infinite power, 
is not cruel. God is the sufferer, and not one that makes suf- 
fering." The divine nature is not one that of)presses mankind. 
The testimony of Christ's life, and the mission of Christ's death, 
and that everlasting love that streams from the cross of Christ 
is, " God so loved the world." Loved it ? No mother ever 
loved her child half so much. And yet what mother is there 
that did not, in her small, feeble way, symbolize the whole atone- 
ment of Christ ? What mother is there that did not bring forth 
her child with pangs, and strong crying, and tears ? What 
mother is there that did not take the utter helplessness of the 
little babe for weeks and months, and give her life for it? 
How she gives up the whole royalty of her rich nature to that 
little child that can neither speak, nor think, nor know what 
1 



JULY. 299 

helps it ! And then through what sickness does she watch ! 
And with what labor and pain does she develop the child ! 
And how does she bring it finally to intelligence, and virtue, 
and manhood, all the way through a living sacrifice of love for 
the child ! 

Is not the cradle a Gethsemane? Is not the cradle a Cal- 
vary? Is there not hidden in, veiled under these acts and 
fidelities of the household, a symbol of that everlasting truth, 
that God is not a tyrant, that God hates cruelty, and that all 
the suffering and sorrow which we see on earth is only on the 
way to a coming victory, and gladness, and joy? I beseech 
of you, turn not away from such a blessed God as that. 



JULYQ: MORNING. 
Grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.— Ephes. iv., 15. 

How long is it since you thought yourself to have entered 
upon the Christian course ? and how far have you traveled in 
acquisition ? If you sent a boy to school, and examined him at 
the end of two years in mathematics, in the natural sciences, or 
in any other branch to which he had given his attention, and 
you found that he had made no more progress than you have 
in this divine work, would you feel that he was an apt scholar ? 
You are a learner. You are to learn gradually, but you are to 
learn all the time. Now what progress have you made ? Have 
you made any ? Do you think you are really any more hum- 
ble than you were in the beginning ? Do you think your pride 
is any easier to manage ? Do you think it is any more under 
your control ? H^ow is it with your tongue ? Do you make it 
an instrument of anger, of irritating passidns, of petty revenges? 
or is it a golden member, from which flow sentences of instruc- 
tion and words of love ? Is it the harp of a harper, full of mel- 
ody and harmony ? What is your thought of your inward life ? 
Do you feel that the graces of Christ Jesus are budding and 
growing in you ? Can you say with thanksgiving and humble 
gratitude that you are conscious that you are growing in grace, 
and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ? 
Do you think you are experiencing more of the reality of a 



300 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Christian life now than you were when you first embraced 
Christianity ? 

There is great danger that persons, when they have gone 
through the preliminary throes of conviction, and have come 
into the Church, and have formed a kind of decent and respect- 
able habit from motives of consistency, will lean upon that 
habit, and will go on to the end of life without any material 
change. Such ought not to be a Christian's life. It ought, 
rather, to be like trees that never let a season pass without 
growth. They are renewed every spring, and nourished through 
the long summer. And a true Christian is like a tree by the 
river of waters, whose roots know no drought, and whose leaves 
shall never wither. 



JULYS: EVENING. 

Daniel kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave 
thanks before his God. — Dan. vi., 10. 

Should young people be encouraged to avoid hours and 
places of prayer, and led to feel that they need only pray when 
they feel like it ? No, very far from it. It is better that there 
should be set occasions and places, only there must be no feel- 
ing of bondage. You must learn to make the hour of prayer 
and the place of prayer sweet. If the sweetness does not come 
in one way it must come in another. At any rate, there must 
be freedom from bondage in the matter. You must not go to 
God as to ajiard yoke or a heavy burden. A yoke that is not 
easy, or a burden that is not light, is neither acceptable to God 
nor profitable to you. In by far the greatest number of in- 
stances where you set apart time and place for devotions, and 
regularly observe them, they will soon become attractive. 
When the habit is once formed, it will become one of the most 
delightful experiences of your life, and will be a source of amaz- 
ing comfort to you. It will be like the bath in the morning 
and at evening, which cools, and cleanses, and exhilarates the 
body. There should be no day without prayers, and many of 
them ; and if there be set occasions of prayer in the morning, 
at evening, and even at noonday, as is the case with some, the 
soul loses no time. The old proverb is, " He that prays well 



JULY. 301 



studies well ;" and you may say that he who prays well works 
well, and does every thing well. 



JULY 7: MOBNING. 

But to do good and to communicate, forget not ; for with such sacrifices God 
is well pleased. — Heb. xiii., 16. 

A heart to do good will always find opportunities. If there 
is a willingness and a wish to he kind to the unfortunate and 
the suffering, God will administer the opportunity ; but if there 
is no such willingness or wish, though ten thousand opportuni- 
ties passed before you, you would never know it. 

Oh you who profess to have been born unto Christ, and who 
daily call him Lord and Master, did you ever see that book call- 
ed the New Testament ? Have you ever read what Christ, 
who had not where to lay his head, did for the sake of helping 
the poor and wretched? Did you ever read that when he 
came, the high, and rich, and educated did not seek him, but 
the low, and poor, and ignorant, thieves and harlots, those who 
were the most wretched ; and little children crept up to him, 
and looked into his eyes, as if they saw in him new hope and 
succor. Though you have read these things, and though you 
claim to be disciples of Christ, and to have been born in him, 
you are saying, "I wish I knew how to be useful." Ah! ask 
God to give you a heart that wants to do. Then you will have 
opportunities enough. 

JULY 7: EVENING. 
He fell asleep. — Acts vii., 60. 

The figures by which death is represented in the New Testa- 
ment are exquisitely beautiful. One is that of falling asleep in 
Jesus. When a little child has played all day long, and be- 
comes tired out, and the twilight has sent it in weariness to its 
mother's knees, where it thinks it has come for more excite- 
ment, then, almost in the midst of its frolicking, and not know- 
ing what influence is creeping over it, it falls back in the moth- 
er's arms, and nestles close to the sweetest and softest couch 



302 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

that ever cheek pressed, and, with lengthening breath, sleeps ; 
and she smiles and is glad, and sits humming unheard joy over 
its head. 

So we fall asleep in Jesus. We have played long enough at 
the games of life, and at last we feel the approach of death. 
We are tired out, and we lay our head back on the bosom of 
Christ and quietly fall asleep. 

I shall sleep sound in Jesus, 

Filled with his likeness rise, 
To live and to adore him, 

To see him with these eyes : 
'Tween me and resurrection 

But Paradise doth stand, 
Then — then for glory dwelling 

In Immanuel's land. 



JULYS: MOENING. 
Give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips. — Psahn xvii., 1. 
I would not tolerate any friendship with myself, and you 
would not tolerate any friendship with yourselves which was 
not sincere. It is not consistent with the highest conceptions 
of God for a man to approach him with ascriptions of adoration 
and praise, or with confessions of sin, which he does not feel. 
We are to abound in prayer. We are ail the time to be in a 
spirit of prayer out of which such expressions and ascriptions 
will be literally true. They will be more intense at some times 
than at others, but they never should be less than simply true 
to our own consciousness. I do not say that a man must feel 
intensely before he utters a word. A man may recognize a 
thing with a tender consciousness, and not with an intense feel- 
ing of its truth, and his expression of it may be acceptable to 
God ; but no man has a right to employ language in prayer 
which does not represent any thing that exists in him at the 
time. 

JULYS: EVENING. 
Wilt thou he made whole 1—John v., 6. 
Whatever may be the systems of philosophy under the in- 
fluence of which you have been brought up, are you not con- 
scious, personally and experimentally, that you are in a low 



JULY. 303 

moral state ? that there is a want of spirituality in you ? that 
you need the inspiration of the Holy Ghost ? Are you not con- 
scious that there is needed in your soul something that shall 
lift you into a larger manhood? Are you content? Have 
you nothing to desire in yourself? Do you accomplish your 
ideals ? Have you marked the frame-work of character ? and 
have you filled it up ? Are you not leaving out the revealed 
truths of Christian manhood ? Are you, even on the pattern 
of mere secular manhood, what you would be ? Are there no 
continually-dropping faults ? Are there no eating sins ? Are 
there no bondages of pride and selfishness ? Are you not sub- 
ject to evil influences in such a way that you hold up your 
hands, and cry out, often and often, " Who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death ?" 

To such Christ comes, as he came to the poor sick man of 
the porch, and says, " Though the ordinary means of healing 
do not avail for thee, wilt thou be made whole ?" There is 
healing in the Lord Jesus Christ for all men, even for those 
who do not know what they believe ; who doubt other people's 
belief. There is a spiritual point where grace can take hold 
and heal souls, so that, little by little, from the experimental 
point, they shall find their way out from the solution of the 
difficulties which environ them. 

Are your trials past the telling ? 

Are your sins as crimson dye ? 
Jesus sees your sad heart swelling 

'Neath accusing Memory. 

From your sins he waits to cleanse you — 

You, the slave by Satan bound ; 
Messages of love he sends you — 

Where can such a Friend be found ? 

Now ! it is the time to try it, 

Test him by his written Word ; 
Come, for he will ne'er deny it ; 

Come to Christ, the risen Lord. 



JULY 9: MORNING. 
Provide things honest in the sight of all men. — Romans xii., 17. 
How many men there are who say and feel that a man is 
obliged to go against honesty in many avocations ! It is sup- 



304 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

posed that the doctor has a right to say to the patient, " You 
are not in danger," if he thinks it will be for the patient's good, 
and will give him a better chance for success. It is supposed 
that parents have a right to tell little pet lies to their children 
because they are not old enough to understand these matters. 
And so in all avocations it is supposed that there are certain 
permissive departures from rectitude. 

But can a man pursue any avocation in life and be honest ? 
It matters not whether he can or can not. You are bound to 
be scrupulous, truth-telling, and honest men, if you would save 
your souls ; and if it obliges you to revolutionize business, then 
you are missionaries for that work. When a man is called by 
the Lord Jesus Christ, he is not called to bear the cross where 
it is light, and lay it down where it is heavy. The law requires 
that you set your conscience by God's Word, and take a straight 
path right through business, however many obstacles you may 
meet. Sometimes it will bring you to harm in the beginning, 
but it will bring you to joy afterward. 



JULY 9: EVENING. 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your 
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 
service.— Rom. xii., 1. 

When you consider what have been the mercies of God, does 
it not appear a reasonable service ? Is it not reasonable that he 
who has given himself to you should ask you to give yourself 
in a life of love to him ? 

Do not tarnish God's inestimable gifts by selfishness. Con- 
secrate your hearts at once to the divine service. Be willing 
to work, and let others have the praise ; be willing to work, 
and let others reap the fruits of your labor. Be like Christ, 
who gave his life to save men. Be more noble. Heroically 
bear ^our cross. Carry your burden without murmuring. It 
is only a little while that we shall have to suffer. We are al- 
most down to the river, and it is not half so deep as you think. 
We are coming to the shore already, and methinks I hear, waft- 
ed from the other side, that sweetest song of them that cry 
ceaselessly, " Come, come." They are crying to you, and they 



JULY. 305 

are crying to me, " Come up hither, and wear the bridal robes 
at the marriage-supper of the Lamb." Every one of us must 
go sooner or later; by-and-by we shall all be there; and oh, 
the joy that is laid up for us who serve Christ ! 

The captive's oar may pause upon the galley, 

The soldier sleep beneath his plumed crest, 
And Peace may fold her wings o'er hill and valley, 

But thou, oh Christian, must not take thy rest. 
For here we all must suffer, walking lonely 

The path that Jesus once himself hath gone : 
Watch thou in patience through the dark hour only — 

This one dark hour — before the eternal dawn. 



JULY 10: MOBNING. 
Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. — John v., 8. 
Many persons who are desirous of becoming Christians think 
they have no right to discharge Christian duties until they 
have gone through certain appointed steps of conviction. They 
wish to be Christians, and to feel like Christians, before they 
live like Christians. Do you say, "If I had been convicted and 
converted, and was a Christian, I would live like a Christian ?" 
Begin to live like a Christian ; that is more important than any 
preliminary steps you could take. Do you think you would 
pray if you were a Christian ? Pray now. Do you think you 
would instruct your children if you were a Christian ? Instruct 
them now. The very way to become a Christian is to do Chris- 
tian duty. Would you praise God if you were a Christian ? 
Praise him now, then. Do you think you would talk to men 
of salvation if you were a Christian ? Talk to men of salvation 
now. The doing of these things will make you a Christian. 
Being a Christian is no mysterious thing. If you would feel 
like a Christian, act like one, live like one. The way to be a 
Christian is to do as the scholar does, go to studying ; as the 
traveler does, start on the journey ; as the workman does, take 
hold and work ; as the farmer does, put in the spade and the 
plow. The way to be a Christian is to let alone the thing that 
is wrong, and take hold of the thing that is right. 

» " Still dost thou wait for feeling?" Dost thou say, 

" Fain would I love and trust, but hope is dead ; 
I have no faith, and without faith who may 
Rest in the blessing, which is only shed 

IT 



306 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Upon the faithful ? I must stand and wait." 
Not so. The Shepherd does not ask of thee 

Faith in thy faith, but only faith in him ; 

And this he meant in saying "Come to Me." 

In light or darkness seek to do his will, 

And leave the work of faith to Jesus still. 



JULY 10: EVENING. 
Increasing in the knowledge of God. — Col. i., 10. 

There is but one God, unchangeable, infinite in power, and 
Avisdom, and goodness. But, after all, our conceptions of God 
are perpetually changing, and changing according to our own 
moral growth. As we grow ourselves, with an increasing ca- 
pacity to think new thoughts and feel new emotions, our con- 
ception of God changes, as it ought to change, from year to 
year, in the direction of nobleness, and attractiveness, and beau- 
ty. That God, who shone to you like a star on the horizon in 
your morning, should have ascended the heights of experience 
at your midday, and should shine down with the fullness of the 
sun upon your heads. 

I sometimes think it is with our experience as it is with 
streams in mountain valleys. A thousand little silver rills 
start, they know not where, and bring up at the bottom of the 
mountain, and form one flower-banked stream. This stream is 
fed by a thousand rills ; it grows by other additions ; and, as it 
flows on, it grows deeper and broader until it reaches the 
ocean. And that which is born of drops of experience in the 
mountain runs dowm and on, as it were, growing broader and 
wider by the accumulation of experience-streams, and empties 
at last into the infinite. We find our thought of God growing 
and growing until it is developed into the eternal. And so our 
God ought perpetually to augment, and fill our heaven more 
and more to the end of life. 



JULY 11 : MORNING. 
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have 
lived in all good conscience before God until this day. — Acts xxiii., 1. ' 

You ought to have a conscience so active, so sensitive by 
daily communion with God, so bathed in the sweet ways and 



JULY. 307 

meditations of a Christian life, that you shall be misled and de- 
ceived by no example and by no specious reasoning. A man 
who has a correct watch learns to trust it. After he has thor- 
oughly tried his faithful servant in the pocket, and knows that 
through months and years it has given him true reports, he 
places great reliance upon it. He may ask the time of the town 
clock, but if it gives a different report from that given by his 
watch he at once says to the clock, " Thou liest." He may ask 
the time of his friend whom he meets in the street, and he takes 
the report of his friend's watch till he looks at his own, when, 
finding that they differ, he says, " Mine must be right, for it 
never deceives me." Every man should keep an account of 
celestial time, and, setting his own heart and his own conscience 
by the beats and throbs of God Almighty's heart, he should 
take counsel of, and believe in, no other. He should compare 
himself daily with this standard, and should take no testimony 
against that. He that has an open face, and looks into the open 
face of God, shall be a child of light, a child of liberty, and a 
child of glory. 

JULY 11 : EVENING. 
I have compassion on the multitude. — Matt, xy., 32. 
It is an unspeakable pleasure to know that there is a being 
who has a heart of exquisite susceptibility, and that he knows 
you intimately, and what your troubles are, and says, " I sym- 
pathize with you ; I am touched with the feeling of your in- 
firmities." "Ah ! but," you say, " I could get along with the 
infelicities of life if it were not for this consciousness of wick- 
edness — if it were not for these throes of ignominious guilt. 
If I was worthy of God I could bear any thing." "When we 
have the greatest sense of our unworthiness and of our sin, it 
is the hardest to strive toward God. And yet the sympathy 
of Christ includes our sin. He is sorry for us, and sympathizes 
with us on account of our sin. Calvary, mountain of blessings, 
is testimony that God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not per- 
ish, but have everlasting life. No trumpet will ever speak as 
the death of Christ speaks in evidence that our woes and sor- 
rows affect the sympathetic heart of God, and make him sorrow 



308 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

for us. Living, he gave himself for us ; dying, he gave himself 
for us ; living again, he lives to intercede for us ; and the nearer 
we can "bring it home to our consciousness of guilt that our God 
is a forgiving God, and loves to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all our unrighteousness, the more nearly shall 
we come to the feelings of Christ toward those who are sinful. 



JULY 12: MORNING. 
Let your moderation be known unto all men— Phil, iv.,5. 

Many persons who are in right courses, and have substan- 
tially right views, go beyond all prudence and all bounds of 
discretion in the use of themselves. I know many women who, 
in the family and in the school, every day exert themselves a 
half more than they have any right to. They exhaust them- 
selves by an industry so far beyond their own capital and their 
own endowment of strength, that they are perpetually held back 
and hindered. They are hurt in their Christian life by excess. 

The same thing is true out of the family and out of the school 
— in business. Many a man does more work in one day than 
he has a right to put into three. Many a man works so that 
he breaks the law of God in almost every single point. Excess 
of enterprise and industry is a national sin with us. 

There are special emergencies in man's life when he has a 
right to draw on his capital. If there is sickness in the house- 
hold, and you are the only well one there, it is not a time for 
you to talk about health. There ai-'e certain things that must 
be done, and you must do them. It is right, in times of great 
peril, when the ship may be foundered, or in times of battle, or 
in other emergencies, for men to draw on their resources. But 
these are exceptional cases. The ordinary law is, that no man 
has a right to go beyond a certain amount of consumption of 
his^excitability. If he does, there comes a reaction, with all its 
morbid feelings, its tenvptations, its suggestions, and its irrita- 
bleness. You sacrifice a thousand times more graces of the 
spirit by irritableness, which comes as the result of overexer- 
tion and inordinate activity, than you can gain by prayers and 
reading. 



JULY. 309 



JULY 12: EVENING. 
To die is gain. — Phil, i., 21. 

Living is death ; dying is life. We are not what we appear 
to be. On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that citi- 
zens ; on this side orphans, on that children ; on this side cap- 
tives, on that freemen; on this side disguised and unknown, on 
that disclosed and proclaimed as the sons of God. 

If we could break down by our faith the barrier which our 
senses interpose ; if we could but walk the garden road and 
move through the celestial air, beholding the lustrous beauty, 
the glorious largeness and liberty, the wonderful purity and joy 
of those whom God hath called and crowned with immortality, 
we should lay aside our sorrow and break forth in thanksgiv- 
ing. Since only days and weeks are between us and those who 
have gone before ; since joy and sorrow alike, and the whole 
course of earthly experiences are bearing us straight onward 
to the same abode, ought we not to find consolation and pa- 
tience, yea, and a sobered gladness, that we are known in 
heaven by our forerunners ? Children are the hands by which 
we take hold of heaven. By these tendrils we clasp it, and 
climb thitherward faster as every cord is loosed that bound 
us here, faster as every heart that we loved draws us upward. 



JULY 13: MORNING. 
Let thy garments be always white. — Eccles. ix., 8. 

The materials which make a man's character or his name 
must be good materials, such as are fit to build a man for the 
duties of this life and for eternal life, to which this life is but a 
door or stepping-stone. These materials must not be like the 
furniture of our shut-up parlors. For, as men have ordinary 
rooms and ordinary fui-niture for common use, and elegant 
rooms and magnificent furniture for special use, so men have 
certain imaginary and heroic virtues which they keep in the 
romance-chamber, and in which they like now and then to dress 
themselves up. But it is those qualities which we use every 



310 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

day, it is those articles with which our living room is furnished, 
that go to make the impressions of others about us ; not what 
we are under the heat of instruction, under the influence of 
views brought to bear upon our inflamed imagination, but the 
things that fall out day by day, and that show the average of 
our thoughts and feelings. The things we use in ordinary life 
are the materials which are operative in the production of our 
character, and which constitute our name. 



JULY IS: EVENING. 

If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bas- 
tards and not sons. — Heb. xii., 8. 

Many of our troubles are like snow, which, starting snow, 
becomes rain before it meets the ground; while many others 
are like snow which falls to the ground snow, but which, though 
it lies there all winter long, is sure to melt when spring comes. 
And as the snow-drop becomes the rain-drop, and the rain-drop 
becomes the juice of fruits and flowers, so our troubles, though 
they fall cold on the branch, melt and carry sap to the root. 
There are many troubles that God brings upon his people, or 
permits them to bring upon themselves, which he. does not care 
to take away from them, and which it is not best for them to 
have removed. Continued troubles are not, therefore, evidences 
of God's displeasure. He expressly affirms that, unless you 
have such troubles, you can not be his sons — he can not be a 
loving parent to you. "Ye have forgotten the exhortation 
which speaketh unto you as unto children." 



JULY 14: MORNING. 
Ye are witnesses of these things.— Luke xxiv., 48. 

Men who are endeavoring to live Christianly say often, 
" Let my example speak, and not my lips." Why should not a 
man interpret his example ? Why should a man leave it to be 
inferred in this world that he is living simply by the power of 
his own will? When the lines are drawn in this world, and 
there are but two parties — one comprising those that live by 



JULY. 311 

the Spirit, and the other those that live by the flesh— why- 
should a man live by the divine Spirit, and yet not give credit 
to the Spirit by which he lives ? Every man who is conscious 
that his character has been brought under the power of the 
Spirit of God is bound to let men know that the life which is 
flowing out from him now is not his own natural life, but one 
which proceeds from the Spirit of God. He is bound to make 
a public witness and testimony that the work of morality, of 
virtue, of spiritual fervor, of higher manhood to which he has 
been called, and in which he is beginning to live, is a divine 
work, and not one that springs from a lower form of natural 
causes only. 



JULYU: EVENING. 
To the righteous good shall be repaid.— Prov. xiii., 21. 

Thetce are four spiritual elements which should precede and 
underlie all other experiences — truth, honesty, fidelity, purity. 
Taking them in their inverse order, by purity is meant the dom- 
inance in the soul of the higher affections and sentiments over 
the lower appetites and passions. It is the term that antago- 
nizes with a life of lust and of salacious desire. By fidelity 
one means the absolute faithfulness of men to trusts reposed in 
them — that tendency in a man which makes it sure that he will 
be faithful in his relations to others, and in all his trusts. By 
honesty is implied righteous, equitable dealing in all relations 
between man and man — not what the law requires, but what is, 
according to a man's best light, right between man and man. 
By truth is meant the inward love of that which is, and the 
disposition to use the truth of fact and the truth of relation, 
just as they are, in all our representations among men. These 
qualities must exist in controlling strength in every worthy 
character. 

Truthfulness, honesty, fidelity, and purity — these constitute 
the term righteousness ; and a righteous man is a man that is 
built upon these four great qualities. They will, in spite of 
all covering, determine a man's reputation. Your course in re- 
spect to truth, honesty, fidelity, and purity will determine your 
character. You can not help it. 



312 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

JULY 15: MORNING. 
Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. — 1 Cor. xiii., 6. 

The man who has a true Christian spirit never takes delight 

in the faults of others. It pains him almost as much to see 

faults in others as to perceive that he has faults himself. Tell 

me, does it not give you as exquisite pain to discover faults in 

those you love as to discover them in yourself? Do you not 

feel that you would give your own body and blood to save 

them from ruin ? So ought you to feel in respect to all your 

fellow-men. Their burdens should be your burdens, and their 

sorrows your sorrows. When a man is actuated by this spirit, 

how easy it is for him to go to others and tell them kindly of 

their faults, and help them to rid themselves of them. Men 

usually will bear to be told their faults by a person who has 

this disposition, but never by a person who has it not. 

Send back the wanderer to the Savior's fold — 

» That were an action worthy of a saint ; 
But not in malice let the crime be told, 
Nor publish to the world the evil taint. 

Rebuke the sin, and yet in love rebuke ; 

Feel as one member in another's pain ; 
Win back the soul that his fair path forsook, 

And mighty and eternal is thy gain. 

JULYW: EVENING. 
By love serve one another. — Gal. v., 13. 

The day is drawing to a close. Through all its hours a slave 
has been moving about the house ; and now, as twilight comes 
on, hear the slave singing a hymn. And what is it that this 
angelic choir is singing to ? It is a little nothing called a baby. 
And who is this slave, fit to be an angel in royalty of gifts and 
in richness of cultivation? It is Mrs. Browning, the poetess, 
noble in understanding, versed in the lore of ages, deep in na- 
ture, full of treasure such as no king, no court, and no palace 
ever had. She sings. And when the little child is uneasy, she 
serves it. And when the child tires of the pillow and the cra- 
dle, it makes a pillow of her. When she is weary, if the child 
does not wish to ejo, she still holds it. When at last it will lie 



JULY. 313 

down, she still wakes for fear the child will awake. In every 
single hour of the night she hears its call. Not a whimper or 
sound from the child escapes her notice. She is up before the 
morning star; and, though weary, all day again this slave 
serves this little baby — this little uncrowned despot of the 
heart. 

Ah ! there is no slave out of heaven like a loving woman ; 
and of all loving women, there is no such slave as a mother. 
How royal, next to God himself, are slaves ! But remember 
what kind they must be. " By love serve one another." That 
is the coin that buys them. It is love, and it is giving one's 
self for another's benefit, and to another's life in the fullness of 
love, that makes true slavery. 



JULYW: MOBNING. 

In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand ; 
for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether 
they both shall be alike good. — Eccles. xi., 6. 

A man can do good in his garden in two days, but he can 
not in his child's heart. In the lower departments of life you 
can see the results of your work as you go along, but in the 
higher realms you can not. The higher you go the slower is 
your work, and the greater is the patience that is required in 
waiting for results. The finest, noblest, truest things are those 
which require a lifetime of patience and work. A man should 
therefore lay out the work of his life as he does the work of 
his garden. In his garden he sows different kinds of seeds, and 
expects that they will produce flowers at different periods of 
the season — some in March, some in April, some in May, some 
in July, and some not till August or September, and he waits 
patiently for those which blossom late. He does not insist that 
all shall blossom in March, or April, or May, and he understands 
that those that he waits the longest for are best worth the wait- 
ing. Then " let us not be weary in well doing" — that is, in 
sowing causes of good as seeds — " for in clue season" — at the 
proper time — " we shall reap, if we faint not." 



314 MOENING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JULY 16: EVENING. 
Come, and let us return unto the Lord. — Hosea vi., 1. 

God is sovereign, and he calls upon men as he pleases. Some 
he calls amid thunder and storm, some in a calm, some in win- 
ter, and some in summer. Some he calls as he calls flowers in 
spring, and some as he calls flowers in autumn. Our business 
is not to determine what is the way in which God must call 
us, nor the way in which we should like to come, but to get up 
and come to our Father, walking in whatever path our feet 
find. Come — that is the thing — with a deep experience, if you 
have i^; without a deep experience, if you have it not ; with a 
great tumult, if you can not help it; without much tumult, if 
it please God that it should be so. It is not to come in any 
particular way, or with any particular experience, but to arise 
and come to our Father, and say unto him, " Father, I have 
sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy 
to be called thy son ; make me as one of thy hired servants." 



JULY 17: MORNING. 
I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. — 1 Chron. xxviii., G. 

Men who have lived years and years as Christians ought not 
to give themselves much anxious thought as to whether they 
are Christians or not. What if a wife should say to her hus- 
band, " My dear, I am exceedingly perplexed, and have been 
for weeks and months, in trying to find out whether I love you 
or not," would he not say very quickly, " Well, I know ?" I 
do not mean to say that there are not babes in the Christian 
life ; I do not mean to say that there are not bond-servants of 
the Lord. I believe many disciples are the Lord's hired men, 
and work on wages ; I believe many are the Lord's stewards 
and agents. But there are those who are the Lord's children, 
living at home. Can you say the Lord's Prayer, and appropri- 
ate it to yourself? There are but few men that ever say spon- 
taneously, " Our Father." 

Where are the blossoming men ? Where are those men who 



JULY. 315 

show that summer has broken out of heaven and is resting on 
their heads? They are the men who are "the light of the 
world." They are God's dear children, risen out of the lower 
atmosphere and above the storm. They have left the thunder 
and the cloud beneath their feet, and are standing on the moun- 
tain-top in blessed transfiguration with the Lord. 

JULY 17 : EVENING. 

For what shall it profit a man if lie shall gain the whole world and lose his 
own soul ? — Mark viii. , 36. 

If you lose heaven, you lose every thing. You can not car- 
ry your ships there ; death will take them all away from you. 
You can not carry your reputation and professional skill there ; 
these are local. All your treasures, and things that make you 
great in the eyes of men, you leave this side. You can carry 
there nothing but your relations to the Lord Jesus Christ- 
only your moral character. If you are deceived in that; if, 
when death comes, it strikes off all physical possessions and sec- 
ular ranklings ; more than that, if, when you come before God, 
he takes the veil away, and you see that you are bringing up 
an unsanctified heart, corrupt affections, and that the battle of 
life has never been fought by you, or that you came out of it 
with disgraceful defeat, you lose every thing — the life that now 
is, and the life that is to come. 

And then comes this terrific denunciation of Christ : " "What 
shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose 
his own soul?" 



JULY 18: MORNING. 

For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the 
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance ; as ye know what manner of men we were 
among you for your sake. — 1 Thess. i., 5. 

Yotr may put all the skeptical men that ever lived on the 
face of the earth on one side, and they may plead in my ears ; 
and all the scientists may stand with them, and may marshal 
all the facts of the universe to disprove the truth of Immanuel 
— God with us ; and yet, let me see my mother walking in a 



316 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

great sorrow, but from the surface of her sorrow reflecting the 
light of cheer and heavenly hope — patient, sweet, gentle, full of 
comfort for others — yea, and showing by her life, as well as by 
her lips, that with the consolation with which she is comforted 
she is comforting others, and that single instance of suffering 
is more to me, as an evidence of the truth of Christianity, than 
all the arguments that the wisest men can.possibly bring against 
it. The sight of piety is absolutely convincing. And to see 
the soul of a man globe itself up where other men shrink, and 
show itself to be clothed in great power where other men are 
very feeble ; to see men able to shed tears with their eyes while 
smiles are on their lips ; to see men give up every thing, and 
stretch out their arms to take in every thing ; to see men stand 
upon the earth, and by faith lift themselves above storms, till 
the sun of the eternal world rests upon their heads — to see this 
is to see the preaching of the Gospel. To present such a spec- 
tacle is to preach Christ indeed. 

Is the cradle empty ? That empty cradle is your pulpit, from 
which you are to preach Christ. That is the place from which 
to preach Jesus, " a present help" to you " in time of trouble." 
Are you cut off, as it were, from the hope and from the joy of 
life ? Oh no ! oh no ! Stand in your lot ; and in this bereave- 
ment, as from a pulpit, preach that Christ who has promised 
peace to those that come to him. 

In conscious weakness thou shalt bang 

On my almighty arm ; 
Soon as the thorn inflicts its pang, 

I'll pour my love's rich balm. 
Thou plainest in thy deepest woe 

Shalt feel me at thy side, 
And, for my praise, to all shalt show 

Tbou art well satisfied. 



JULY 18: EVENING. 
No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither 
tinder a bushel, but on a candlostick, that they which come in may see the 
light.— Luke xi.,33. 

When a light-house keeper, on a stormy, dark, tempestuous 
night, is told to go into his attic and take care of his lantern, 
why does he receive such instructions? Because the ocean- 
burdened ship, afar off, is coming upon the coast. He is to do 



JULY. 317 

it because wind-driven craft are creeping toward the land, and 
need the guidance of the light. It is for the sake of the imper- 
iled mariner that he is sent to take care of the lantern. But 
suppose he should say, " I am told to take care of this light," 
and should put up the shutters, saying, " The wind is not going 
to blow this light out." The light is safe, and it illumines the 
little room in which it burns, but on the sea it is dark. He 
might just as well let the light go out ; for the only object in 
keeping it is that those on the ocean, who are approaching the 
shore, may be directed by it. 

Christians are God's light-houses, and he says to them, " Shine 
out for the poor, the ignorant, the neglected, the wretched. Let 
your light so shine before men that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father which is* in heaven." 



JULY 19: MOENLNG. 
A friend of publicans and sinners. — Luke vii., 34. 

I pity men who, overtaken with trouble, and made to feel 
their need of God, have lifted up their head beseechingly to 
him, and the answer has been delayed, and they have given 
way to despair, and come to the conclusion that God will not 
hear them. 

No matter how deep your sin is ; no matter how proud and 
selfish you have been ; no matter how sensual, how cruel, how 
insincere, how skeptical you have been ; no matter how mis- 
chievous your example has been to other men ; no matter if 
you have ruled with an infidel rule, and destroyed thousands 
of souls, it is the nature of God, the moment you feel your need 
of him, and turn to him for mercy, to have mercy on you. 

There is no man, therefore, who goes to God, saying, " Help 
me to be free from sin," but may be perfectly certain that God's 
whole nature moves toward him, as broad and irresistible as the 
summer moves from the south toward the north. If you go to 
God and say, " Make me feel right while I am sinning," he will 
not. But if you feel the plague of pride, of selfishness, and of 
being godless in this world, and you want somebody to help 
you out of your unhappy condition, I do not object to your go- 



318 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

ing to your minister or some friend, but first go to God. He 
is the best Friend, and Pastor, and Lover that the soul ever had. 



JULY 19: EVENING. 
My son, give me thine heart. — Prov. xxiii., 26. 

Oh that God should want my soul ! I have no doubt that 
many a woman has said, when asked to be the wife of some 
great nature, " It can not be." True love is always modest. It 
is always grateful. It always wonders, " Why am I beloved ?" 
It always says, " How can I repay this love ?" And to think 
that God wants me ! To think that this glorious excellence, 
the plenitude of the beauty, and power, and wisdom of heaven, 
comes to me — nay, that it comes to me in the manifestation of 
Jesus Christ ; that it comes to me with all the sweetness of at- 
traction, and with all the self-sacrifice and suffering of dying 
love ! And yet God, from whose brow flames beauty, and in 
whose bosom love proudly sits, says to me, " My son, give me 
thy heart," and proffers his own. With what quick response 
should I love him ! with what instant a]3prehension should I go 
to him ! Lord, thee, and thee only, I choose. Now thy ene- 
mies are my enemies. If they be in my heart, they are my en- 
emies still ; though they be in my household, if they hate thee 
I will hate them. Do not I hate them that hate thee ? O Lord, 
search me, try me, and see if there be any evil way in me. 
Thus I have covenanted that I will be thine in time and thine 
in eternity. 

What offering can I make, 

Dear Lord, to love like thine ? 
That thou, the God, didst stoop to take 

A human form like mine ! 
" Give me thy heart, my son :" 
Behold my heart — 'tis done ! 
I would love thee as thou lov'st me, 
O Jesus most desired ! 

Thy heart is opened wide, 

Its offered love most free, 
That heart to heart I may abide, 

And hide myself in thee. 
Oh, how thy love doth burn, 
Till I that love return ! 
I would love thee as thou lov'st me, 
O Jesus most desired ! 



JULY. 319 

JULY 20 : MOBNING. 
Search the Scriptures. — John v. , 39. 

People read the Bible far less, intelligently than they do the 
dictionary; for, if a man goes to the dictionary, he knows just 
what he wants to find ; if he goes to the Bible, he does not 
usually know what he wants to find. He has this feeling about 
it : that all good men love the Bible, and that, if he is going to 
be good, he must love it ; that all Christian men read the Bible, 
and that, if he is going to be a Christian man, he must read it. 
But where to read, how to read, how long to read, and how 
often, and when, he does not know. 

You ought to go to the Bible to get certain effects by certain 
causes. What do you want ? Do you want to know something 
of God's existence ? There are truths that will give you light 
in that direction — seek them. Do you want to be enlightened 
on the subject of Christ's love ? Then seek those texts which 
treat of that subject. Do you want to shield yourself from 
temptation ? There are passages that put you on your guard, 
and that address themselves to your reason, and fear, and con- 
science — go and search them out. You are to make yourselves 
acquainted with the Word of God, that yoix may know what its 
various instrumentalities are in this respect. 

JULY 20: EVENLWG. 

But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgivs 
your trespasses. — Matt, vi., 15. 

Ax unforgiving spirit puts a man farther from God than any 
other thing. It is one of those dispositions that provoke even 
God to retaliation. I think it is often far more criminal before 
God than that sin over which it domineers. It is a perilous 
thing for a man to carry in his heart a spirit that refuses io 
forgive. And when you forgive, let the forgiveness be large, 
let it be thorough, let it be like that which God, for Christ's 
sake, has afforded you. 

I have known families where the father and daughter had 
not spoken to each other for months ; partners that had some 



320 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

disagreement, and could not meet each other peaceably ; men, 
who were avowed Christians, that would not walk on the same 
side of the road with each other. Here is the royal lore of di- 
vine conduct, of the glorious majesty of mercy, of the wonder- 
ful richness of that love which, rolling out of the heart of God 
as from an inexhaustible fountain, covers down human trans- 
gression — all this is before men; and yet, though they bear 
the sacred name of Christ, they carry within them a cankerous 
heart of unforgiveness — and that with reference to little, petty, 
trifling affairs that are hardly worthy of a thought. The very 
dust of life turns us to such bitterness, often, that we are toward 
our fellow-men in the same attitude which Satan is in toward 
us — that of " accusers of the brethren." Oh, how little have 
we learned of the spirit of Christ ! Until we have learned to 
forgive so thoroughly that the heart, instead of fostering bit- 
terness and animosity, has become a heart that would nurse 
and that would bless, we can not be said to be true and faith- 
ful exemplars of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 



JULY 21 : MORNING. 
Forever, Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.— Psalm cxix., 89. 

Religion does not mean church any more than summer 
means tree. What is a church but a mere instrument of relig- 
ion? A church bears the same relation to the kingdom of 
God that a hot-house bears to summer. A hot-house is a place 
to keep plants in till the summer is so warm that it will do to 
put them in the open air, and churches are hiding-places for 
giving men a chance to grow till the warmth of the world is 
sufficient to enable them to grow without them. Churches 
may die, but the Bible does not die. The instruments of relig- 
ion may perish, but God does not perish. This service, this 
doctrine, this creed may become unfitted for the uses of the 
time, but the eternal principles of truth remain. Conscience 
remains, and throbs in every heart. Purity remains, God-given 
and God-enlightened. Faith remains, still gazing upward, and 
beholding what the natural eye can not behold. Love remains 
in the household, in the neighborhood, and in the nation. 



JULY. 321 

Christ's work on earth is advancing, and filling the world with 
the glory of God. 

JULY 21 : EVENING. 

And they came to Jericho : and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples 
and a great number of people, blind Bartimeus, the son of Timeus, sat by the 
highway side begging. — Mark x., 46. 

Oh, to be blind ! To see no face ; to read no book ; to be- 
hold no field, or tree, or flower; to have no morning and no 
evening, but unbroken night forever ; to see no coming spring, 
no changes in the purpling bark of yet unleaved trees, no sprout- 
ing grass, no coming birds ; to see neither father nor mother, 
neither friend nor companion ; and oh ! to lose the ineffable 
bounty of God in little children, that fill the eyes with such 
delight that one might for hours ask only to wander and gaze 
upon them; to be among those that see, and you not to see; 
to be unable to look when one cries " Lo here — lo there !" to 
almost forget that you do not see, and accept darkness as if it 
were light ; timid steps and groping for manly walking — this 
is indeed a bitter thing. 

There is a spiritual realm, and that man who can not per- 
ceive spiritual truth is blind. The heavens declare God's glory, 
and the firmament showeth his handiwork. The world is full 
of the evidences of his being and presence. And yet there are 
many that gaze minutely upon all these letters written upon 
sky and ground, and never discern the secret of the literature. 
They admire nature, but never God. They admire the treas- 
ures of nature, but never the hand that created them. There 
are those who see nothing in spiritual life; nothing in their" 
own sinful condition and its misery ; nothing in the Christian's 
life — no joy, no triumph, no argument of courage and hope. 

To all such Jesus comes. He passes by whenever his name 
or word is proclaimed. As along the road from Jericho he 
passed within sound of the blind man, so by his Spirit and by 
his truth he passes not far from every one. 

Rise. Call for help if you feel that you need it. Call, not 
once, nor twice, but until your cry is heard. If checked, if hin- 
dered, if seemingly drawn away, call again, and put your heart 
X 



322 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

and soul into the supplication. And there shall come to you 

the voice, the influence of one that says, "Bid him come to me." 

Go to Jesus, and if he says, " What wilt thou that I should do 

unto thee ?" — and he says it to every needy supplicant — say 

with him of old, " Lord, that I might receive my sight." 

Sad one, in^ecret bending low, 

A dart in thy heart that the world may not know, 

Wrestling the favor of God to win — 

The seal of pardon for days of sin — 

Press on, press on, with thy prayerful cry — 

"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." 



JULY 22: MORNING. 

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and nnder the 
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, 
Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. — Rev. v., 13. 

If, when I rise in the last day, and look upon Jesus Christ, I 
may not cast my crown at his feet, then let me die in ignorance 
of his name. For he has told me that he is mine, and that I am 
his. He has said that he dwells in my heart, and has told me 
to come into his heart. He has called himself by every sweet 
name. Nature itself is precious to me because I associate it in 
so many ways with him. There is nothing in the day, or in the 
night, or in the year, that has not been sanctified and made use 
of as a love-term for the Lord Jesus Christ. And now may I 
not love him, so that by love I shall hold on through life, and 
go through the ford of death ? Did he not tell me to cling to 
him ? Did he not tell me to aspire toward him ? Did he not 
open to me every thing in him that was sweet and attractive ? 
And have I not a right to let my heart go out to him in sim- 
plicity and trust ? 

Oh, poor bewildered soul, do not be afraid. There is no 
rock in the harbor where you are going. Love on, love more ; 
and do not fear that in the last day you will find that you have 
put the crown on the wrong head. Crown the Lord Jesus 
Christ — crown him Lord of all — for you are safe in worship- 
ing him. Love him, and he will take care of you. Dismiss 
your jealousies. Dismiss your fears and your distress. Only 



JULY. 323 

be sorry that you do not love enough, and that your life does 
not conform enough to love. 

" He that honoreth the Son honoreth the Father also." At 
no time does the Eternal Father rejoice in us more than when 
we are giving our life and our being to Jesus Christ our Savior. 



JULY 22: EVENING. 
For we are laborers together with God. — 1 Cor. iii., 9. 

No crown that any earthly monarch could put on your head, 
no distinction that could be conferred by writing your name in 
the book of nobles, would be an honor so great as that which 
God bestows upon you when he permits you to go down to the 
poorest beggar's child and labor for its coronation in heaven. 
And yet we do not esteem it so. The Christ that is in the 
privilege does not appear until the privilege is taken from us. 
We take all the external toil, and fail to find the hidden Christ 
of joy in faithful Christian labor. 

When the clouds drop down low, and it is rainy, and chilly, 
and misty, there is nothing in them but discomfort ; but when, 
the sun having risen, they get off a little distance, every body 
claps his hands, and calls out and says, " Oh, behold the rain- 
bow !" What is the rainbow ? Nothing but that cloud which, 
when it is passing you, weaves a garment that is disagreeable 
and hateful to you, but which, when it is removed a little dis- 
tance from you, with the sun shining on it, is clothed with glory 
and beauty. Dull duties a little way off may become God's 
rainbows to men. 

Working, O Christ ! with thee, 

Working with thee, 
Unworthy, sinful, weak 

Although we be, 
Our all to thee we give, 
For thee alone would live, 
And by thy grace achieve, 

Working with thee. 
Savior, we we^ry not, 

Working with thee ; 
As hard as thine our lot 

Can never be. 
Our joy and comfort this — 
Thy grace sufficient is ; 
This changes toil to bliss, 
Working with thee. 



324 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JULY 2d: MORNING. 
This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God. — Eccles. ii., 24. 

If God were to recount what he has done for us, it would 
seem as though our life was a golden chain, in which one gold- 
en link clasped another, every hour being a link, and every day 
lengthening the chain. Yet we frequently feel as though our 
life was a desolate, barren life, because we have not noticed 
what the benefits of God to us really were ; because we have 
taken no such heed as to be impressed that the Lord was guid- 
ing and defending us, and giving us victory. One mercy cov- 
ers down another like waves of the sea. We do not stop to 
think that the events which redeem this day, which fill this 
hour with peace, and which open the future to us, are special 
divine mercies. Life is full of events of mercy, only men do 
not heed them. They do not know that God is performing 
marvels around about them. The unthought-of things are oft- 
en full of beauty and full of strangeness. 

I sometimes think, of a night, that it is a sin to go into the 
house and leave God's glory flashing abroad in the northern 
lights, or in the stellar exhibitions in all the broad expanse 
above, without a witness. What are men's inventions and in- 
genuities compared with those astonishing developments which 
every summer's day shows us in the clouds, in the storms, and 
in frescoes of light and beauty ? Every single day there is, in 
the silence of nature, and in the might of nature, enough to fill 
the human soul with joy and gratitude. But, while day tells it 
to day, and night repeats it to night, man sees but little of it. 



JULY 23: EVENING. 

Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Sicn a chief 
corner-stone, elect, precious ; and he that believeth on him shall not be con- 
founded. — 1 Peter ii., G. 

The preciousness of Christ is not merely in his divinity nor 
in his mediatorship. The familiar experience of Christ, if it 
were to report itself, would show that the preciousness of the 
Savior grows upon us by his personal relationship to us. It is 



JULY. 325 

what he becomes to us severally, in our various scenes and 
stages of development in life, which makes him most precious 
to us. 

There are those who have received from the Lord Jesus 
Christ an inspiration. There has come over their soul a new 
influence. They are conscious that there is lifted upon them, 
from him, a light which has widened their horizon, and given 
'them a new conception of the ends of life, and made men of 
them. There are those who are able to say, from day to day, 
" If it had not been for my conversion to the love of the Lord 
Jesus Christ — if it had not been for that which Christ has done 
for me, I never should have been, and never could have been, 
what I now am." And he becomes precious because he has in- 
dicated to them that which is unspeakably valuable to them — 
that soul-growth which takes hold upon eternal conditions; 
which inspires in us not simply intellectual development, but 
that heroism which gives us higher ideals of life, and breaks us 
off from being the mere animals which we are to begin with, 
and teaches us how to be men, and how to revere those who 
are men like ourselves. 



JULY 2± : MORNING. 
Seek and ye shall find. — Matt, vii.,7. 

It is yours to sing, it is yours to rejoice, it is yours to have 
ecstatic visions, it is yours to live in a state of mind in which 
you can never be disturbed. No agitation of the elements, no 
storm, no thunder above or earthquake beneath, can shake or 
move those who know how to be built ; but you must be will- 
ing to be the artificer, and search for the rock, and seek till you 
find it, and build thereon in Christ Jesus. This blessing is for 
every man who desires it, but it is by work it is to be obtained. 
We know that God gives graces ; but does he give them with- 
out the instrumentality of human exertion ? No more than he 
does harvests; no more than he does education. They that 
seek shall find; to those who knock it shall be opened unto 
them. 



326 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JULY 24: EVENING. 

Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpoh and Shen, and called 
the name of it Ehen-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. — 1 Sam. 
vii.,12. 

The coming on of a great trouble or grief; the hours of an- 
guish, which we may or may not confide to another ; those 
habitual troubles which weigh down life with a perpetual grav- 
itation ; and, on the other hand, the rolling away of grief; the 
glad morning after the night ; the dawn of great affections in 
the soul — which are the best blessings that God ever gives, 
and are to us what the coming of the morning sun is to the 
day ; the emerging into the light of a new faith ; victories over 
easily besetting sins; the conquest over inbred sins; clearer 
views ; stronger impulses of conscience ; a new sense of man- 
hood infused into our souls ; a more heroic impulse taking the 
place of a craven or mere physical habitude of obedience — all 
these critical inward experiences are worthy of some external 
recognition. "We should specialize them. We should think 
of them in their individuality and in their sequences ; and it 
would be well for us if we could set up some memorial, and be 
able to bear witness to one another, saying, "Hitherto the Lord 
hath helped us." 



JULY 25 : MORNING. 

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore 
such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be 
tempted. — Gal. vi., 1. 

As when a man in a march has stumbled and fallen head- 
long, they that have not fallen lift him up, and put him on his 
feet again, so, saith the apostle, if a man be taken in the very 
fact of sin, those that are good and pure must restore him to 
their love and confidence and to his own self-respect. "Re- 
store him in the spirit of meekness ; considering thyself, lest 
thou also be tempted." We are not to take hold of a man with 
that stern spirit which conscience inbreeds, or with an air of 
authority, and say, "Thou hast done wrong; I judge thee!" 



JULY. 327 

Nor are we to meddle with wrong-doers in a spirit of self-con- 
ceit; nor yet with what is harder for proud men to hear — a 
proud, patronizing, and self-conscious, condescending spirit, as 
if all the help we gave was hut another way of showing our 
superiority to them. We are to deal with a gentle and sweet 
meekness, as if we too were weak and fallible. We are to ap- 
proach them with that high, serene, tranquil spirit which God's 
Spirit breathes upon the human soul when he inspires it with 
something of his own infinite gentleness and compassion ; and, 
enwrapping them in the bosom of this goodness, we are to 
nourish them back to their better life. 

Give words, kind words, to those who err ; 

Remorse much needs a comforter. 

Though in temptation's wiles they fall, 

Condemn not ; we are sinners all. 

With the sweet charity of speech, 

Give words that heal, and words that teach. 



JULY 25: EVENING. 
Lord, save us : we perish. — Matt. yiii. , 25. 

Man is not only weak, but guilty. His own conscience con- 
demns him; and God is greater than his conscience. He has 
need of help in the Mediator, in the Intercessor, in Christ Jesus. 
And a sense of this need I suppose to be an inseparable part 
of every true Christian experience. A great many persons, 
however, undoubtedly take the initial steps of a Christian life, 
and live more or less Christianly for years before they are 
brought to this state of feeling. Sometimes men are shut up 
unto sorrow; sometimes they are shut up unto despondency; 
sometimes they are shut up unto doubts, and are beset with 
temptations to unbelief; and some come in one way, and some 
in another, to the fullness of a Christian life. Just as vessels 
sailing for New York from the east, the southwest, the south, 
and all points of the compass, converge, and make the same 
port, so Christians with widely different experiences all tend to 
the same spiritual condition. 

Whosoever comes, howsoever he comes, Christ will in no wise 
cast him out. Nevertheless, as the sense of the need, so will 
be the realization of the divine love which supplies it. Unto 
whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. 



328 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



JULY 26: MORNING. 

Cf the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hact forgotten Gcd 
that formed thee. — Deut. xxxii., 18. 

The gifts of God, expressed in the human mind and disposi- 
tion, seldom form the basis of thought, much less of thanks. 
We are neither thankful for the casket, nor for the jewels that 
God has put within the casket. Indeed, the more men have, 
the less apt are they to be grateful. They become vain of their 
mental gifts, arrogant, worldly, foolish. We bitterly inveigh 
against princes who abuse their power in the oppression of their 
subjects, but there are no princes endowed as royally as those 
whom God makes eminent by mental gifts. What is the his- 
tory of the human race in this regard ? That the highest are 
the humblest ? That the richest by the gift of God inwardly 
are the most loving, the most gentle, the most sensitive to di- 
vine power? Those whom God has lifted nearest to him stand 
farthest from him. We are more often apt to be grateful when 
we receive some temporal gift — when some impending mischief 
to our prosperity is removed, than with the thought of God's 
goodness that we bear about in reason, in flashing imagination, 
in hope, in love, and in every thing that goes to make up the 
human disposition. The gift of God to us, touched with im- 
mortality that, once kindled, burns on forever, radiant past all 
comparison of star, or sun, or lesser things like these — we carry 
this from the cradle to the grave, and scarcely think to praise 
or to love God for his gifts and benefactions. 

JULY 26: EVENING. 
I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.— Psalm xvii., 15. 

When Michael Angelo was employed in decorating the inte- 
rior of that magnificent structure, the Sistine Chapel, the Pope 
demanded that the scaffolding should be taken down, so that he 
could see the glowing colors that with matchless skill were be- 
ing laid on. Patiently and assiduously did that noble artist 
labor, bringing out his pictures, wondrous for their beauty and 
significance, until the work was done. The day before it was 



JULY. 329 

done, if you had gone into that chapel, what would you have 
seen ? Posts, planks, ropes, lime, mortar, dirt. But when all 
was finished the scaffolding was removed. Then, although the 
floor was yet covered with rubbish and litter, when you looked 
up, it was as if heaven itself had been opened, and you looked 
into the courts of God and angels. 

The scaffolding is kept around men long after the fresco is 
commenced to be painted; and wondrous disclosures will be 
made when God shall take down this scaffolding of the body, 
and reveal what you have been doing. By sorrow and by joy ; 
by joys which are but bright colors, and by sorrows which are 
but shadows of bright colors; by prayer; by the influences of 
the sanctuary; by your pleasures; by your business; by re- 
verses ; by successes and failures ; by what strengthened your 
confidence, and by what broke it down; by the things you re- 
joiced in, and by the things you mourned over — by all these 
God is working in you. And you are to be perfect, not accord- 
ing to the things that you plan, but according to the divine 
pattern. Your portrait is being painted, and God, by won- 
drous strokes and influences, is working you up to his own ide- 
al. God is working to make you like him. And the simple 
but wondrous declaration is, that when you stand on Zion, and 
before God, and see what has been done in you, you shall be 



JULY 27: 3I0ENING. 
Take heed, and beware of covetousness ; for a man's life consisteth not in the 
abundance of the things which he possesseth. — Luke xii., 15. 

What are houses, and ships, and armies, and kingdoms to 
him that once has known the name of God ? What to him that 
has heard the joy that sounds evermore above all the loudest 
or the sweetest sounds upon earth ? What to him is any thing 
that this world can afford who never forgets, by day or by 
night, that he is a pilgrim, who can not be seduced by any 
enticement from reaching forward to trie true, the pure, the 
good ? Not that he disdains wealth and power, or counts them 
to be in vain in their spheres, but he remembers that manhood 
lies above them all. For they that seek that supremely yearn 



330 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

after it, dream of it, and see in it visions of the day, year in and 
year out ; and God and brotherhood are more to them than sil- 
ver or gold, or sceptre or crown. As men grow toward God, 
they long more, not only for God, but for the godlike. 

Yes, he is mine ; and naught of earthly things — 
Not all the charms of pleasure, wealth, or power, 

The fame of heroes, or the pomp of kings, 
Could tempt me to forego his love an hour. 

Go, worthless world, I cry, with all that's thine ; 

Go ! I my Savior's am, and he is mine. 



JULY 27: EVENING. 
Looking unto Jesus. — Heb. xii., 2. 

The vague and sad forebodings of Christians as to their final 
safety are very unreasonable in the light of God's revelation. 
There are men that hope sometimes, but doubt much more. 
This arises from an almost exclusive regard to one's own sick- 
ness, and an almost utter neglect to look at the fullness, rich- 
ness, freeness, and inexhaustible bounty of God's love for men. 
No man can find any reasonable comfort, I think, so long as he 
is more conscious of his own state than of the amazing grace 
and power of God. I do not know the man who, if he should 
look merely at his own disposition, at his past life, at his Chris- 
tian experience, could find argument for any thing but sadness 
and dissatisfaction in regard to the past, and fear in regard to 
the future. It is not in that direction that hope springs up. 
As long as a man looks in upon himself, he is like one that 
opens a trap-door and looks down to see the stars. The stars 
are not to be seen by looking that way. You do not want to 
look down into a well to see the light, but into the heavens 
above. 



JULY 28: MORNING. 

He hath sent me to hind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the 
captives, and the opening qf the prison to them that are bound. — Isaiah lxi., 1. 

A sinful man is like the man in the castle whose story 
amused our youth. His hands are bound; his feet are fettered; 
thick walls, windows far up, heavy doors, many bolts, and jail- 



JULY. 331 

ors, make his escape impossible. So he only awaits the day 
of execution. But as he sleeps, some night, a strange dream 
haunts him of home. He thinks his mother has come to him. 
Starting up, he sees standing beside him a beauteous form, who 
says to him, " Make haste. Lift your hands, that I may release 
them." And she takes off the chains. She has beheld him, and 
she knows his name, and love has brought her there. It is the 
castle-keeper's daughter. " Lift up your feet," she says, " that 
I may set them free." What he could not do for himself, love 
and mercy are doing for him. "Now follow me silently." The 
guards are all asleep. The door is opened ; he never could have 
opened it. The passage - ways are threaded ; he never could 
have found his way through them. He feels again the mid- 
night air beginning to lift his damp hair, long matted. He 
begins to breathe once more the atmosphere of liberty. Can 
language be found with which, under such circumstances, one 
would turn to his benefactress, though he had known her but 
in the hour of his release ? Would he not be a monster whose 
heart did not leap out in thanksgiving at such a time ? 

You are such prisoners. Jesus is that mercy and that love. 
He has come down to your dungeon, and unlocked your chains, 
and inspired you with courage and strength, and opened the 
door, saying, " I am the way." Follow him ; every step will 
make you stronger. Follow him; every step will take you 
farther from bondage and nearer to liberty. Follow him ; ev- 
ery step will lead you toward your true manhood. Follow 
him, and soon you shall stand in Zion and before God. 



JULY 28: EVENING. 

I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me. — Ezra 
vii.,28. 

~No man who is entering the precincts of a higher life ; no 
man who is drawing near to the twilight of his true manhood ; 
no man who begins to know that he is a son of God, and to 
hear voices whose meaning he can scarcely discern, and to rec- 
ognize the call of God, and to respond to that call by beginning 
to live in obedience to his higher instead of his lower nature — 
no such man ought to say, " I can be a Christian a little way," 



332 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

You can be a Christian all the way. There is nothing in you, 
if you have started on the Christian course, so bad that you can 
not overcome it by the grace of God. It is your privilege to 
receive power from on high that shall give your will such firm- 
ness, and your judgment such directness, and your moral feel- 
ings such predominance, that you shall be able to overcome 
any passion or appetite. Whatever may be your sin, your lust, 
your vice, it is in your power to correct it. No man should in 
a cowardly way enter upon a Christian life, saying, " I can do 
some things, and I can live better than I have been living." 
You can live victoriously. Gk>d gives you the power — and he 
will refresh and invigorate that power in every man's soul — to 
overcome every snare, every delusion, every passion and appe- 
tite, every thing that is wrong in you, and to become perfectly 
victorious. 



JULY 2d: MORNING. 
He calleth his own sheep by name. — John x., 3. 

I never see the sun rise in majesty, or go down in glory, 
that my heart does not go out after God. I thank him that he 
has taught me in the Bible that it is a symbol of the Father. 
And yet it is not enough for me. The sun pours its rays alike 
on every thing, good or bad. It works toward decay as much 
as toward growth ; it ministers to death as much as to life ; it 
labors for the icicle as much as for the violet; it pours its 
beams on the coffin that goes to its long home, and also through 
the window where the child sleeps in the cradle, and it does 
not know the difference. 

I want a God that knows me by name as I know my chil- 
dren. I love to think of Christ standing in the garden when 
Mary addressed him, and could not see him because her eyes 
were so full of tears. There are a great many that can not see 
Christ because their eyes are full of teai-s. She, thinking him 
to be the gardener, said, " Tell me where thou hast laid him." 
And he said — what? "Follow me, and I will show you?" 
No; he said, "Mary." It was life from the dead. That sin- 
gle word told her all. And I think our Father in heaven calls 



JULY. 333 

us by name. He knows how to think and speak of us individ- 
ually. Every one of us stands before him as different from all 
other beings. You have a right and title in God just as your 
child has in you. You have a personal relation to him. You 
may come to him as having a separate interest in him. There 
is a place for you in his regard as just what you are. He is 
your own. He made you distinct from every body else, and he 
meant that you should trust in him for your peculiar wants. 

Yes, for me, for me he careth 

With a brother's tender care ; 
Yes, with me, with me he shareth 

Every burden, every fear. 
Yes, o'er me, o'er me he watcheth, 

Ceaseless watcheth, night and day ; 
Yes, even me, even me he snatcheth 

From the perils of the way. 



JULY 29: EVENING. 

Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; 
the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock 
shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls : yet I 
will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. — Hab. iii., 17, 18. 

The time to test religion is in the emergencies of life. When 
every thing is prosperous, when your health is good, when your 
spirits are fine, when your circumstances are as you would have 
them, that you are joyful in religion is a thing to be thankful 
for ; but, after all, it is not a test of religion in you. If it were 
presented as evidence of your piety, men would say, " Why 
should he not rejoice in the Lord? He has every thing he 
wants. Take away his property and his family, and then see 
if he will be such a happy Christian." But if, when a man is 
unprosperous, he has a religion that will carry him through, 
that is a religion to be proud of — in the better sense of pride. 
If, when a man is in great affliction, he has a religion that will 
hold him up ; if, when a man is under vehement temptation, he 
has a religion that is like a coat of mail ; if, when a man has 
lost all that the world clings to, he still has that which is more 
to him than houses, or lands, or friends, or honor ; if, finally, 
when heart and flesh fail, God is the strength of his salvation, 
his joy and his triumph, then he has a religion that is worth 
having. And nobody can well afford to be without the expe- 



334 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

rience of intimate faith and love by which the soul is sustained 
in temptation, in adversity, and in death itself. 



JULY SO: MORNING. 
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my 
disciples. — John xv. , 8. 

Whejt people want to make things attractive in farming, 
they give exhibitions of their products. The women bring 
their very best butter, moulded into tempting golden lumps ; 
and the men bring the noblest "beets, and squashes, and vege- 
tables of every kind, and from the orchards they bring the 
rarest fruits ; and when you go into the room where all these 
things are displayed, they seem to you attractive and beautiful. 

It seems to me that is the way a Christian church ought to 
represent the Christian life. You ought to pile up your apples, 
and pears, and peaches, and flowers, and vegetables, to show 
what is the positive fruit of religion. But many people in 
Christian life do as farmers would do who should go to a show, 
and carry — one, pigweed ; another, thistles ; another, dock ; 
and another, old hard lumps of clay, and should arrange these 
worthless things along the sides of the room, and mourn over 
them. What sort of husbandry would that be ? Christians 
are too apt to represent the dark side of religion in their con- 
versation and meetings. 

Christ prayed for his disciples, that they might bring forth 
fruit. He declared to them that in the divine administration, 
God, as vintner, sought to make the vine bring forth more and 
more fruit. Bearing fruit, sweet, luscious, and blessed, is the 
business of the Christian life. 

JULY SO: EVENING. 
Unto thee will I cry, Lord, my Eock. — Psalm xxviii., 1. 
A great mountain lifts itself up, with perpendicular face, 
over against some quiet valley; and when summer thunders 
with great storms, the cliff echoes the thunder, and rolls it 
forth a second time, with majesty increased; and we think 
that, to be sublime, storms should awaken mountain echoes, and 
that then cause and effect are worthy of each other. But so, 



JULY. 



335 



too, an oriole, or a song-sparrow, singing before it, hears its own 
little song sung back again. A little child, lost and crying in 
the valley, hears the great cliff weeping just as it weeps ; and, 
in sooth, the mountain repeats whatever is sounded, from the 
sublimest notes of the tempest to the sweetest bird-whisper or 
child- weeping ; and it is just as easy to do the little as the 
great, and more beautiful. Now God is our rock, and from his 
heart is inflected every experience, every feeling of joy or grief 
that any human soul utters or knows. 



JULY 31: MORNING. 
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus 
Christ unto eternal life. — Jude 21. 

It is in the power of no other influence to do so many diffi- 
cult things, and make them as easy in the doing, as the love of 
God shed abroad in our hearts. For love equalizes all things. 
It is the power which makes weakness strong, which takes dark- 
ness away from the dark, which gives tenfold radiance to light. 
It is that which enters all things, goes over or through all ob- 
structions, discovers all things that are hidden. It is that 
which levels all inequalities of fortune, makes men prosperous 
in adversity, gives them health though sick, crowns them with 
victory in defeat, and smooths all rough ways. So that a soul 
that feels the full breath of love ; that feels itself filled, inspired, 
lifted, and overmastered by, and overblessed with the love even 
of one on earth, whose love is worthy, is like a region on which 
the sun rises in spring, bringing all brightness, and warmth, and 
life — is like the morning that comes after the darkness of the 
night, when all birds fly and sing, and all flowers open and 
breathe perfume ; when all mists rise up and fade to blue ; and 
when forest, and field, and air, and water, and trees, and grass, 
and stones are bathed in rosy joy. The rising of Christ upon 
the soul is very significantly said to be the rising of the sun of 
righteousness with healing in its beams. 

Thy love, O God ! restores me, 

From sighs and tears, to praise ; 
And deep my soul adores thee, 

Nor thinks of time or place. 
I ask no more, in good or ill, 
But union with thy holy will. 



336 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

"lis that which makes my treasure, 
'Tis that which brings my gain ; 

Converting woe to pleasure, 
And reaping joy from pain. 

Oh ! 'tis enough, whate'er befall, 

To know that God is all in all. 



JULY 81: EVENING.' 

Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, hut conde- 
scend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. — Rom. xii., 16. 

To be of the same mind one toward another is to have a feel- 
ing of community, a feeling of common universal sympathy; 
and we are expressly forbidden to do what every one, in the 
proportion in which he is educated, tends to do — to aspire to 
the exclusive association of those who have risen in the world 
by reason of the same privileges. 

How foolish it would be for a man to judge of trees in the 
nursery, or in the orchard and garden, as we are wont to judge 
of men. How foolish, in selecting grapes, to judge of their val- 
ue by the trellis on which the vines are fastened ; by the nature 
of the timber composing the stakes on which they are support- 
ed ; by the quality of the bands by which they are tied to the 
stake, that the wind may not shake them down. Men never 
select plants and trees with their eye fixed upon their external 
fastenings and conditions ; but when they turn to that most 
wonderful creation of God, a human being, rare in faculty, il- 
limitable in outreach, complex in intellectual faculties, rich in 
domestic affections, sublime in moral sentiments, a creature car- 
rying a double nature of matter and of spirit in a double life — 
an earthly and a heavenly one — him they judge, not by these 
interior, divine, constituent elements, but by his garb, by his 
place in life, by the trade which he follows, by the merest tran- 
sient connections which he forms. 



AUGUST 1: MORNING. 

I know thy works : behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man 
can shut it : for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast 
not denied my name. — Rev. iii., 8. 

The Spirit of God sympathizes with the difficulties which lie 



AUGUST. 337 

in our life in the material body. All our physical wants, all our 
bodily weaknesses and sicknesses, and the infelicities that arise 
from them — these things men who are in health are very hard 
and uncharitable about. Many a person disappoints you — does 
not fulfill your expectation ; many a person lets fly casual words 
which irritate you ; but if you knew out of what utter weak- 
ness — if you knew out of what a sense of almost deathly feeble- 
ness these things often come, methinks it would excite in you, 
as doubtless it does in God, a spirit of pity and compassion, 
rather than of blame for their wrong-doing. There needs to be 
pity for the shining, although their sins are to be repressed. 
God has sympathy and compassion for those who have tempta- 
tions that are preying upon them, and who are weakened by 
overexertion, or who suffer in body, or who are in discourage- 
ment and despondency of mind, so that they are led to do things 
which are wrong. Society may disregard them, but there is 
one Heart that never forgets them, nor ceases to compassionate 
them. There is one summer place for people who are sinning 
or doing evil things. It is the heart of the divine Spirit. 



AUGUST 1: EVENING. 
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among 
you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think ; but to think 
soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. — Rom. 
xii.,3. 

When you measure yourself, you must not measure by what 
the world thinks of you, nor by a social standard, nor by a com- 
mercial standard, nor by an intellectual standard, but by a re- 
ligious standard. You are to estimate yourself according to 
the grace of God in your heart, and the fruit of God's Spirit 
which you manifest in your life. Mercy, kindness, humbleness, 
meekness, goodness, gentleness, humility, long-suffering, pa- 
tience, disinterestedness, faith, love — these are the traits you 
are to sum up when you wish to know what you are. You can 
not find out what you are by the till, by the coffer, by the ledg- 
er, by any book or paper, nor by reputation. You can only 
find out what you are by the qualities of goodness in you. 

Did you ever attempt to measure yourself in this way ? How 
many times in the course of a year do you suppose you judge 
Y 



338 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

of yourself strictly and impartially according to your religious 
worth ; not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought 
to think, but soberly, according as God has dealt to you the 
measure of faith? 



A UG UST 2 : MORNING. 

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations ; knowing 
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have 
her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.— James 
i.,2-4. 

The place for true virtue is where virtue is tempted. The 
place for courage is where there is danger. The place for man- 
hood is where there is a stress in the other direction. It is 
where men mingle with men, and are tempted to selfishness, 
and rise above it, and to pride, and hold it in subjection ; it is 
where men are tempted to be fiery, and bitter, and cruel, and 
greedy, and aggressive, and they, in the midst of these tempta- 
tions, strengthen the other tendency, and lift it into vitality — 
it is there that manhood is developed. That is God's pulpit ; 
it is God's Church ; it is where men are formed. No man is 
formed in a cave ; that is the place for bats. No man is form- 
ed as an anchorite or ascetic. You are to be living men among 
living -men, overcoming evil tendencies and temptations. It is 
there that God calls you to be full-orbed men in Christ Jesus. 

Hark ! 'tis a martial sound — 

To arms, ye saints ! to arms ! 
Your foes are gathering round, 
And peace has lost its charms. 
Prepare the helmet, sword, and shield, 
The trumpet calls you to the field. 

No common foes appear 

To dare you to the fight, 
But such as own no fear, 
And glory in their might. 
The powers of darkness are at hand ; 
Resist, or bow to their command. 



A UG VST 2 : EVENING. 
And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall 
sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. — Matt. 
viii., 11. 

The number of redeemed ones is augmenting still ; heaven 



AUGUST. 339 

has room for all that the earth can ever send thither ; there is 
a place for every one which none other can take. There are 
garments and palms for every single soul, though it be hoary 
in years or though it be an infant of days, though.it be washed 
out from immeasurable corruption or though it speed without 
stain or contamination out of life. For all and every condition 
there awaits in heaven a robe, a place, and a God ; and there, 
in that eternal summer; there, in those innumerable joys ; there, 
in that great company of the redeemed, whose robes are washed 
in blood, and made whiter than the snow ; there, in ranks, in 
cities, in nations, in races, and in multitudes without number, 
they dwell in holy liberties and in blessed experiences. They 
are monuments of the goodness of God and companions of his 
glory, full of ineffable joy. Nay, we conceive not, nor have we 
power to conceive, the joy of those that have gone before, our 
companions on earth, who are now companioning with God in 
heaven. 



AUGUST 3: MORNING. 
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.— 1 Cor. 
x.,12. 

A man takes a boat, and rows down the harbor, and the tide 
is with him, and he is swept away from the shore. He is after 
pleasure, and the tide and wind are with him, and they sweep 
him on and out. When the sun goes down, how glorious are 
the heavens, and the reflecting, mirroring ocean. Still out and 
on he is swept, thoughtless and full of poetic fancies. He is 
not seeking the night, but the night is seeking him. He is not 
courting terrific storms, but already the sky is full of clouds 
that bear the elements of his destruction. It is one thing, with 
the wind and tide, to sweep out upon the ocean, and it is anoth- 
er thing against the wind and tide, in the night, and in the 
midst of a terrific storm, to find the shore again ; and so, help- 
less, he goes down to the bottom, with none to hear his faint 
outcry. 

In life, tens of thousands, benighted and bestormed, have 
sunk beneath the waves of iniquity, and you, knowing it, say, 
" Yes, they sank, but I shall not sink." But you will, unless. 



340 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

warned, you turn to God, and learn that the ways of integrity 
are the only safe ways, and that every way of wickedness is full 
of peril, and leads to certain disaster in the end. 

A UG UST 3 : EVENING. 

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God 
and our Savior Jesus Christ.— Titus ii., 13. • 

The Christ that delivered us; the Christ that sustained us 
when our babe dropped away from our arms ; the Christ that 
sustained us when we buried our dead, almost hopeless and 
crushed ; the Christ that sustained us when we were in bank- 
ruptcy ; the Christ that sustained us when all men were against 
us, and it seemed as though the full breath of winter was cut- 
ting through and through ; the Christ that sustained us in the 
hour of despondency ; the Christ that stood by us when all 
men had deserted us ; the Christ that was our friend on the sea 
and on the land, in the prison-house and on the battle-field ; the 
Christ of the household ; my mother's Christ ; my father's 
Christ ; my brother's Christ ; my sister's Christ ; the Christ of 
the lecture-room and of the prayer-meeting ; the Christ of all 
my life, at last begins to rise before me in my later years. As 
I die, I do not go toward the barren and the voiceless land ; I 
go toward all that my heart has ever known of joy and of no- 
bility. I am living toward myself, and I shall die toward my- 
self, because " for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." And 
so, at last, when I go to that fatherland — the land of my fa- 
thers — I shall not be a stranger ; nor shall I need to learn the 
language of that land ; nor shall I need to be introduced to 
him that is the head there, for all my life long I have been 
learning. And when at last I hear that voice, compared with 
which all music of earth shall be as a dry and cacophonous 
sound, saying, " Well done, good and faithful servant," then, in 
that hour of joy, of full possession, and of blessed presence, I 
will cast my crown at his feet, and say, " Not unto me, but 
unto thy name, be the praise of all that I am, and all that I ever 
shall be." 

Dear name ! the rock on which I build 

My shield and hiding-place ; 
My never-failing treasury, filled 

With boundless stores of grace. 



AUGUST. 34i 



Jesus, my Shepherd, Husband, Friend : 
My Prophet, Priest, and King ; 

My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, 
Accept the praise I bring. 



AUGUSTA: MORNING. 
Be courteous. — 1 Peter hi. , 8. 

Life is made a great deal pleasanter, intercourse is made a 
great deal smoother, if men observe the little forms of propriety 
in life, which may not mean a great deal, hut the absence of 
which is felt. It is very little to say " Good morning," and 
yet, if every time you meet a friend or a neighbor you look 
him in the face and say " Good morning, my friend," or " Good 
evening, my friend," is not the effect which is produced very 
different from that which is produced if, when you meet a man, 
you hardly look at him, and pass on ? Is there not a difference 
in his feeling ? Is there no difference in yours ? 

Good manners are not, of course, the same as virtues, but 
they stand very closely allied to virtues. There seems to be 
with many an impression that honesty and frankness require a 
species of gruffness and rudeness. The young — particularly 
those that are less cultured than they might have been — have 
the impression that there is a kind of manliness in being rude 
and blunt. There is not. It is a misfortune for a man to have 
rude manners, no matter where he is or who he is. A shipmaster 
on the sea, or a collier in the mine, is all the better if he has cour- 
teous manners — and he may have them. It lies with him to 
possess them. Social harshness has nothing in it that is bene- 
ficial. In all things, remember that true politeness, and the 
source of true good manners, is a Christian, generous sym- 
pathy. 

AUGUSTA: EVENING. 
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in 
the wilderness.— Hebrews hi., 8. 

Blessed are they that have sorrow. Sad are they that are 
without it. He must be a very good man that has lived. in this 
world and has not had any trouble. Steam-ships do not care 



342 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

> 

whether the wind blows or not, because they have internal mo- 
tive forces ; but we are not steam-ships, and we need troubles as 
winds to bear us on. We make no voyages without troubles, 
unless we are very good indeed. 

Blessed be God, then, that gives us sorrow upon sorrow, 
trouble upon trouble, stroke upon stroke. These things are so 
manj- knockings at the gate of heaven, saying, " Open, Lord." 
Let heaven's gate fly open when they fall on you. See to it 
that they take you to God. Never in sorrow be sorry for 
any thing which you have done that was right, and pure, and 
true. Never in sorrow say, " Oh that I had the leeks and 
onions of Egypt, and were not obliged to eat this food of the 
desert which I so much loathe." When God is taking you 
through the wilderness toward the promised land, never look 
back nor shrink. Bear your trouble, and say, " Strike, God, 
and strike again, and as often as needful ; do any thing to me, 
and take every thing from me, but let me have thee, and life, 
and life eternal." Though troubled on every side, be not dis- 
tressed ; though cast down, know how not to be destroyed. 



AUGUST 5 : MORNING. 
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him ; let him 
know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall 
save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.— James v. , 19, 20. 

Is there any thing worth living for more than such a mission ? 
It is good for a man to write a book. A book will live, and shall 
have no sexton; but he himself will soon die and be laid away. 
A book is an invention by which men live after they are dead 
so far as this world is concerned. A hymn or song that deserves 
to live is lifted above persecution. The tyrant or despot can 
not touch it. But oh ! neither book, nor hymn, nor song, nor 
any product of the human mind, is to be compared with the 
immortal life itself; and ye that save one soul, and lift it, by 
the power of your instrumentality, blessed of God, into the 
sphere of immortality and glory, shall shine as the stars in the 
firmament. Such achievements will be a source of more joy, 
when you stand in Zion and before God, than all the treasures 
of the world. For when death comes, not your ships, not your 



AUGUST. 343 

store-houses, not your piles of gold, not your reputation among 
your fellow-citizens, not even the joys of the future state, if you 
could rise and see them in the light of eternity, would you value 
in comparison with the satisfaction of having been permitted to 
save one soul. 

Go forth to life, oh child of earth, 

Still mindful of thy heavenly birth ; 

Thou art not here for ease or sin, 

But manhood's noble crown to win. 

Then forth to life, oh child of earth ! 
Be worthy of thy heavenly birth. 
For noble service thou art here ; 
Thy brothers help, thy God revere. 

AUGUST 5: EVENING. 
I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. — Joshua i. s 5. 

If you are endeavoring for yourself, and against social entan- 
glements, to rise to a true Christian life, remember that you 
need, and that you shall have the help of God. It is a lonely 
way that the repentant sinner walks, yet there are stars behind 
the clouds for him. It is a most solitary path that he who has 
done wrong, and means to do right, has to tread ; but remem- 
ber, as you tread it in all the pain of solitude, that if you could 
but see you would behold the form of another walking by your 
side. There is one that says to you in the hour of your discour- 
agement, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." That faith- 
ful Chief, that loving Christ, that Shepherd who seeks the lost 
sheep, and, if they can not walk, bears them in his arms ; he 
that redeemed your soul with his own precious blood, and seeks 
to lift you frorii. a lower to a higher plane — from ignominy, dis- 
honor, disgrace, and death, to the joy of his ownership — he will 
never leave you nor forsake you. 

If God is calling you to-night, listen to him ; if God is draw- 
ing you to him to-night, do not hold back. Oh, generous and 
loving nature, snared in the wrong, but now repenting toward 
the right, let nothing draw you back. It is life if you go for- 
ward, and death if you go back. The call will never come 
again as it has come. Forsake father, and mother, and brother, 
and sister; give up all friendship, and each pleasure, and every 
prospect. One single moment in the forefront of that all-re- 
warding heaven, where Christ,. in the glory of his Father's 



34^ MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

kingdom, and God's angels shall meet yon, will more than re- 
pay you for that which you suffer here. 



AUGUST 6: MORNING. 

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
cf God the Father.— Phil, ii.,11. 

There are many hearts that turn toward the Lord Jesus 
Christ with an enthusiasm of love, with a clasping of affection, 
with an entire allegiance, with a hope, a yearning, a desire, that 
carries with it every thing which their heart has to give ; and 
they have been so educated that if you say to them, " Do you 
think he is divine ?" they can not say that they believe him to 
be so ; but their heart is making him divine all the time : and 
the loving worship of Jesus as divine is a true worship. By 
the heart, man believes unto salvation ; and there is many a 
man who may err in his speculative ideas, but whose heart 
makes correction for all his mistakes, if it is really and truly, 
with all its power and enthusiasm, fixed on the Savior, and 
loves him. 

Are not all your best feelings consciously excited in you by 
the thought of Christ, by the presence of Christ, and by the 
truth as it is in Christ ? And although you see manifold in- 
consistencies and imperfections in yourself, and live far below 
your ideal, are you not conscious that about that name your 
best experiences, the very best things your soul knows, cluster 
every day ? Then you need not be afraid to put the name on 
that Being. You need not be afraid to crown him. Your 
heart has crowned him already. You have made him your 
Chief, your Leader, your Guide. You have ascribed to him, 
not by thought, but by affection, every thing that constitutes 
allegiance to divinity. Your heart is worshiping him. 



AUGUSTS: EVENING. 

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to 
pray, and not to faint. — Luke xviii., 1. 

Many men seem to shrink from prayer as though it were a 
matter of doubt whether they could pray. They would pray, 



AUGUST. 345 

but they do not feel that they are worthy to. Who ever was ? 
There never was a worthy prayer. Never did a man receive 
a gift of God that was deserved. Never was there a divine 
gift that was not a mercy. And yet men are held aloof from 
prayer by the false notion that God's mercies are hindered by 
their unwortkiness, as though he had not declared himself to be 
one that gives beyond their asking and beyond their thought. 
He will not measure you and give you less than you expected. 
He does not determine from your character and desert what he 
shall, give. He expressly declares that, and he tells us to act 
in the same manner. " He maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the un- 
just." These testify to his love. Alas I that he should need 
such witnesses as these. When men no longer witness for 
him, the clouds and the daily recurring sun are his witnesses. 

God, then, does not limit himself by the desert of those to 
whom he gives mercies, but takes his i>atterns from the large- 
ness and generosity of his own nature. He pleases himself by 
giving. i 

When the great organ sounds, it does not sound according 
to the size of your ear, but according to the size of its own 
pipes. Its harmony does not depend upon your ability to ap- 
preciate it, but upon the vastness and complexity of its own 
stops. So our God sits in heaven with infinite resources and 
power, and does, not according to our thought, but exceeding 
abundantly more than we can ask or think. 

" God hath spoken once ; twice have I heard this — that power 
belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mer- 
cy; for thou renderest to every man according to his work." 

O Lord, how happy should we be 
If we could cast our care on thee, 

If we from self could rest, 
And feel at heart that one above, 
In perfect wisdom, perfect love, 

Is working for the best : 

Could we but kneel and cast our load, 
E'en while we pray, upon our God, 

Then rise with lightened cheer, 
Sure that the Father, who is nigh 
To still the famished raven's cry, 
Will hear in that we fear. 



346 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

A UG UST 7 : MORNING. 
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do. — Matt, vi., 7. 

A man has been running without an observation for days and 
nights ; he is whelmed in darkness ; he fears he is going on to a 
dangerous shore, and he is in great distress. But by-and-by 
the wind shifts, and the clouds which have so long covered the 
heavens begin to break, and the man runs and gets his instru- 
ment, and a cloud lifts for a single instant, and out shines a fa- 
miliar star, and he catches a glimpse of it, and down shuts the 
cloud again. "Ah !" he says, " shut, if you want to ; I've got 
all I want." He has borrowed from the underlying sky, from 
the regular movements of the divine clock-work, what he needs 
for his reckoning, and it did not take him more than a minute. 
And he says, " Now I know just where we are." Was not that 
minute's work as good as if he had been an hour about it ? _ 

Now a man that prays, and that, praying, feels the heart of 
God — a man that prays, and that, praying, feels that his soul, 
like a quick bird that darts from the forest shade into the sun- 
light, is, by thought or feeling, lifted into the presence of God, 
into the influences of the eternal world, into the heavenly state, 
has got an impulse, and has obtained the desired object. Being 
sorry because one can not pray long, when a short prayer an- 
swers every purpose, is absurd. Prayer is not to be measured 
by the yard. It is a thing of quality, not a thing of quantity. 
That prayer which gives you the hope of God, and the love of 
God, and the aspiration of purity, and a heavenly spirit all day 
long, is the best prayer for you ; and that prayer which is long 
and multitudinous, without giving you any such things, is no 
prayer at all. 

A UG UST 7 : EVENING. 
And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, 
and a reed in his right hand : and they bowed the knee before him, and 
mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews ! — Matt, xxvii., 29. 

Jesus Christ was the greatest of all his contemporaries — 
King of the world, of time, and of eternity, because he was the 
crowned Sufferer. Other kings there were, but he was the 



AUGUST. 347 

greatest. Other crowns flashed splendor from stones beyond 
price, but no stone ever yet was to be valued with these spines 
of thorns for glorious beauty. What is a stone, a diamond, an 
emerald, an opal, but mere cold, physical beauty ? But every 
thorn in that crown is a symbol of divine love. Every thorn 
stood in a drop of blood, as every sorrow stood deep in the 
heart of the Savior. And the great anguish, the shame, the 
indignity, the abandonment, the injustice, and that other un- 
known anguish which a God may feel, but a man may not un- 
derstand — all these were accepted in gentleness, in quietness, 
without repelling, without protest, without exclamation, with- 
out surprise, without anger, without even regret. He was to 
teach the world a new life. He was to teach the heart a new 
ideal of character. He* was to teach a new power in the ad- 
ministration of justice. A divine lesson was needed — that love 
is the essence of divinity; that love, suffering for another, is the 
highest form of love; that that love, whe*n administered, carries 
with it every thing that there is of purity and justice; and not 
only that love is the fulfilling of the law, but that God himself 
is love. 

The crown of thorns is the world's crown of redemption. 
The power of suffering love, which has already wrought such 
changes in the world, is to work on with nobler disclosures and 
in wider spheres ; it is to teach men how to resist evil ; how to 
overcome sin ; how to raise the wicked and degraded ; how to 
reform the race ; how, in short, to create a new heaven and a 
new earth, in which is to dwell righteousness. 

Where, then, is glory to be found ? 

Here, here, upon this shameful tree, 
Where heaven's King, a victim found, 

Is made a sacrifice for me. 
For love is highest excellence, 

The source of all the joys above ; 
'Tis stronger than omnipotence, 

And Jesus' richest crown is love. 



AUGUST 8 : MORNING. 
He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.— 1 John iv., 16. 
A man by mere prayer does not come near heaven, by mere 
psalm-singing does not come near the throne of God, but by 



348 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

every single heart-beat of true love takes one broad wing-beat 
of flight toward God himself. And when he conies near to 
that state in which, morning, and noon, and night, he abides in 
the spirit of true love, he is not far from heaven and the throne 
of God. 

How is it with you ? Since you made a profession of relig- 
ion, is your life more full of the fruits of love ? Have you a 
more comprehensive benevolence toward all mankind ? Every 
year do you less and less regard the service of loving men as a 
task, and do you more and more accept it with cheerfulness ? 
Do you find that the currents of your thought and feeling are 
setting outward instead of inward? Are you beginning to 
learn that you are not to sweep the circuit of life, and draw its 
treasures in to you, to bless you and gratify you ; but that, like 
Christ, you are, so far as in you lies, to disseminate blessings, 
forgetting your own comforts, and living for others in such a 
way that you shall have a special care for all with whom you 
have to do, whether parent or child, employer or employed, 
brother or sister, husband or wife, teacher or scholar, compan- 
ion or friend ? Are you more full of the sweetness of a true 
Christian love ? In this direction you must measure, to know 
whether you are growing in grace and in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Prayer is the dew of faith, 

Its rain-drop, night and day, 
That guards its vital power from death 

When cherished hopes decay, 
•And keeps it, 'mid this changeful scene, 
A bright, perennial evergreen. 

Good works, of faith the fruit, 

Should ripen year by year, 
Of health and soundness at the root 

An evidence sincere ; 
Dear Savior, grant thy blessing free, 
And make our faith no barren tree. 



AUGUST 8: EVENING. 

First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the e&r.—Mark 
iv.,28. 

Christian experience is a growth, and when things grow 
they grow in their own order. Though you may accelerate 



AUGUST. 349 

growth, you can not anticipate the after products before the 
intermediate steps have been taken. Men desire to be like 
Paul in the culmination of his experiences, but they do not 
want to be like him in those detached steps by which he came 
to those experiences. Many men would like to know what the 
student knows, but they would not like to undergo the process 
of mental application that the student underwent in obtaining 
his knowledge. Many men want to be deep, but they do not 
want God to dig the well ; they want to be strong, but do not 
want God to put them to those tasks that shall make them 
strong. God gives men the necessary material; he also puts 
them through the drill by which these things are wrought out. 
Do not forget that, though in God's house there are many things, 
yet there is an order that belongs to those things, and that or- 
der can not be changed. 



A UG U8T 9 : MORNING. 
Our sufficiency is of God.— 2 Cor. iii.,5. 

What is more beautiful than the morning-glory in the morn- 
ing, which, as if nature loved it, and decked it with her fairest 
jewels, is adorned on every line and lineament with exquisite 
pearls ? When the sun glances on it, what leaf is more beauti- 
ful, what vine is more graceful, what blossom is finer in texture 
and form than those of this flower ? But, ere ten o'clock has 
come, it has all collapsed, its pearls have exhaled, its form has 
shriveled up, and its glory has passed away. 

What are our best productions of the mind but morning- 
glories, that, ere they are fashioned, are gone, and gone forever? 
We can build houses, and they will stand ; but when we build 
structures of thought, of grace, of love, of purity, how fragile 
and transitory they are ! How quickly are our highest virtues 
broken down and taken away ! 

Our comfort lies in this — that he who began a good work in 
us will continue it to the day of its perfectness in Christ Jesus. 
We derive satisfaction, not from any confidence which we have 
in ourselves, but from the confidence which we have that our 
God, who has loved us, and redeemed us by the blood of his 



350 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

only Son, having undertaken to educate us and perfect us, will 
complete the task. 



AUGUST 9: EVENING. 

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. — 2 Cor. iv., 17. 

In distinction from the quick-made and quick-perishing glo- 
ries of earth, the apostle speaks of the glory of the other life as 
one that is past all measuring, past all ordinary experience, and 
past all thought. It is exceeding and eternal. We rise into 
a normal condition in which we shall abide for evermore ; in 
which every part of our nature shall be so high, so full, so per- 
fect, that it shall make its impression of completeness in excel- 
lence and beauty upon every one that is present or that shall 
come near. God himself shall look on you and say, " How beau- 
tiful !" You that cower down, and shrink, and hide yourselves 
from the shining eye of God with a consciousness of imperfec- 
tion, God shall yet take you, and look upon you ; and his face 
shall light up with admiration, because you shall be so beauti- 
ful, so perfect, so illustrious in excellence. We are not wasting, 
we are not wearing, but we are going on and up toward a land 
where God means to glorify himself by our glory ; and we are 
to stand there to illustrate to eternal ages the height, and depth, 
and length, and breadth of love, and wisdom, and eminent glo- 
ry, by the admirableness of the glory to which we ourselves 
shall have attained. 



AUGUST 10: MORNING. 
Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take 
thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. — 
Matt. \l, Si. 

To-moeeow you have no business with. You steal if you 
touch to-morrow. It is God's. Every day has in it enough to 
keep every man occupied without concerning himself with the 
things which lie beyond. 

When the pilot is steering on the Ohio River, he looks at the 
headlands miles beyond him, in order to know where he is ; for 



AUGUST. 351 

he has been accustomed to judge of the twisting and tortuous 
channel by certain of these headlands. And so a man may take 
headlands far down in the future to steer by, in order that he 
may be better enabled to run his keel in the channel that he is 
now in. By foresight we enable ourselves to get along better 
to-day, and by so much we have a right to look into the future. 
But all the foresight of a given day is only to be such as shall 
better fit us for the duties of that day. And when a man has 
got through with the waking hours of any single day, he has 
got through with his duty up to that point of time. Duties 
will begin again to-morrow, but all duties lapse and end with 
each sphere of active time given to man. You have enough 
work to occupy all your time to-day. Blessed be the man 
whose work drives him. Something must drive men ; if it is 
wholesome industry, they have no time for a thousand tor- 
ments and temptations which they would otherwise have. Let 
him be thankful who has, every day, enough legitimate work 
to keep him busy. 

AUGUST 10: EVENING. 

Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. — 
Acts iii.,19. 

Many persons think they are not Christians because they can 
not say that they have had any overmastering conviction of sin. 
Have you ever had such a conviction of sin as led you to be dis- 
contented with your daily life ? Have you ever experienced so 
much dissatisfaction with yourself that you felt that your life 
must be reformed ? Have you ever had such a sense of sin 
that you felt that God must help you, and that it was a case 
which was beyond mere human power ? Have you ever had 
such a sense of sin that you felt, " If I might, I would begin to- 
day to live a different life ?" Have you ever had such a sense 
of sin that you made it a part of your daily business to correct 
the faults and to resist the temptations to which you were sub- 
ject ? Have you ever had such a sense of sin that it seemed 
hateful to you to do wrong, even when you were doing it — 
more hateful than at any other time ? Have you ever had such 
a sense of the repellency of sin that you earnestly longed to 



352 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

live a pure, noble, Christian, devout, devoted life ? Have you 
ever had those impulses? Why have you not obeyed them, 
then ? You are like a child that wants to read a book, but will 
not learn his letters because he does not want to touch a book 
till he can read it all. You must learn your letters before you 
can read. 



AUGUST 11: MORNING. 
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.— Romans 
xiv., 12. 

What this account is, and under what circumstances it will 
be given, we know not. It is not the way of revelation to teach 
details. We are so unspiritualized that we could not under- 
stand them. The fact is merely stated, and left. When the 
great day of reckoning comes, then for all we have received ; 
for each talent that has been given us ; for every faculty of our 
being ; for each opportunity that we have enjoyed ; for all that, 
being offered us, we have taken and improved to our good, or 
rejected with harm to ourselves; for the influences that we 
have set in motion ; for the influences that have been exerted 
upon us ; for the formation of our character ; for our habits ; 
for every thing that has contributed to make us rational and 
responsible beings — for all these things we are to give account 
to God. 

What should be the effect of such a truth as this ? Will you 
not make it a monitor to dwell in your conscience ? When you 
are perplexed and influenced by conflicting motives, will you 
not let it come to lead you in the right way, by whispering in 
your soul, " Thou, God, seest me, and I shall give account of 
myself to thee ?" How many struggles would have come to a 
happy issue if this great, this awful truth had been brought to 
bear upon your thoughts and feelings. 

/ 

A UG U8T 1 1 : EVENING. 

And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God 
with us.— Matt, i., 23. 

There is nothing like the consciousness of Immanuel for men 



AUGUST. 353 

that are fighting the battle of life. Give me, of all mottoes, 
"Immanuel — God with us." Oh that I might write it on my 
child's cradle, "Immanuel — God with us." Oh that I might 
write it over the threshold of my child's entrance into wedded 
life, " Immanuel — God with us." Oh that I might write upon 
all the garments that my child wears the same motto, "Im- 
manuel — God with us." Oh that I might write it on every 
single book and task, " God with us." Oh that it might be in- 
scribed on every fear and sorrow, " God with us." I would see 
gleaming in the first light of the morning those words, " God 
with us." At evening, when the sun goes in glory to his rest, I 
would have borne back to my eyes upon its last rays the same 
words, " God with us." And in the silence of the night I would 
still have running through my mind the thought of " God with 
us." Always and every where I would have for my motto, " Im- 
manuel ! Immanuel ! Immanuel !" If God be for us, who can be 
against us ? What power, what joy, what inspiration to noble- 
ness comes with this consideration when it has become familiar- 
ized and domiciled ! 

Sweeter sounds than music knows 

Charm me in Immanuel's name ; 
All her hopes my spirit owes 

To his birth, and cross, and shame. 

When he came the angels sung, 

"Glory be to God on high !" 
Lord, unloose my stammering tongue ; 

Who should louder sing than I ?" 



A UG U8T 12 : MORNING. 
For we are members one of another. — Eph. iv., 25. 

Ik Christ we are a family. All men who love Christ belong 
to that family. They may not mean it; they may not know 
it ; they may not belong to any Christian organization, yet they 
belong to that family. Outward organizations may be neces- 
sary for educational purposes, but not for spiritual union. The 
moment a man's heart touches the heart of Christ in living 
faith, he becomes, whether he knows it or not, the brother of 
every other in heaven or on earth who has come into the same 
relationship with Christ. Whoever is united to Christ is broth- 
Z 



354 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

er or sister to every body else who is united to him. But, 
above all, we are of one father ; we take of his nature ; we are 
the objects of his love ; we are redeemed by his sacrifices, by 
his death. God's union with men is not a shadow, is not a fig- 
ure, is not a dream ; it is the statement of a fact as literal as 
any law in nature. The union of sunlight with vegetables is 
not more real than the interfusion and union of God's soul with 
the soul of men. 



AUGUST 12: EVENING. 

The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took 
and sowed in his field : which, indeed, is the least of all seeds, but when it is 
grown is the greatest among herbs. — Matt, xiii., 31, 32. 

When a man begins to be a Christian, he is like a seed that 
has just come up with two small, tender leaves. If you plant 
the seed of an apple, it does not come up a tree covered with 
fruit. You never saw an orchard, each tree of which, when it 
first came up, did not consist of two baby leaves. From these 
small beginnings came in after years the orchard. A Christian 
does not come up a full-grown Christian. He comes up with 
but two leaves at most, and sometimes with only one. The 
kingdom of God in man at first is so small that it is like a grain 
of mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. But the moment a 
man has had the first feelings consequent upon conversion, the 
moment he has begun to say, " I accept God's will as the rule 
of my life, and I intend to live according to the counsels of 
Christ," that moment he is a Christian. But he has only begun. 
A new birth is not a new life, but only the beginning of it. 
There is yet a great deal to do in the man, in his family, in 
business, in his relations to society. He must enter upon the 
work of settling all his affairs according to a new law — the law 
of love. 

Sower divine, 

Sow the good seed yi me, 

Seed for eternity. 

'Tis a rough, barren soil, 

Yet, by thy care and toil, 

Make it a fruitful field, 

A hundred fold to yield. 

Sower divine 

Sow deep this heart of mine. 



AUGUST. 355 



AUGUST 13 : MORNING. 



And lie said unto another, Follow me. But lie said, Lord, suffer me first to 
go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead ; 
but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. — Luke ix. , 59, 60. 

When Christ was on earth, a great many persons that came 
to him were going to be his disciples after a preparation. One 
says, " I will follow thee, but suffer me first — " " Stop !" says 
the Savior ; " I do not want you unless you will follow me at 
once." These suffer-me-first folk are not the ones to follow 
Christ. If you have any secular preparation to make, you are 
not the one to follow Christ. When he was on earth, and peo- 
ple came to him, what he demanded of them was this : "Follow 
me now." . And that is what he demands of every person to- 
day. If any say, " Lord, we do not understand the doctrine 
yet," he says, "Then follow me for that reason, and I will teach 
you." "Lord, we do not feel that our hearts are sufficiently sub- 
dued." "Follow me, and they will become subdued." "But, 
Lord, we do not know that we shall hold out." " You certainly 
will not if you do not begin ; follow me just as you are." You 
must either follow Christ or go away from him. You must 
either accept him or renounce him. If you are conscious of 
being sinful, and have a burdened conscience and a heavy 
heart, and need consolation and salvation, I beseech you to fol- 
low Christ unhesitatingly, unquestioningly ; and he will reveal, 
hour by hour and day by day, what your duty is, and all that 
is needful for you to know. 



AUGUST 13: EVENING. 

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confi- 
dence steadfast unto the end. — Heb. iii., 14. 

I know churches that would shiver if I were to go into their 
lecture-room, and were to say, " If a man is united to the Lord 
Jesus Christ by faith, and is his disciple, it is not only his priv- 
ilege and right, but it is his duty to know it." They would say 
that it was a most audacious assumption for a man to even think 
that he was in Christ. Ministers of the Gospel often teach peo- 



356 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

pie that it is a fatal thing to cherish such a belief, and attempt 
to keep them in a state of uncertainty under the false impres- 
sion that such uncertainty is beneficial. But I do not believe 
in uncertainty. It is not a thing that is recommended in the 
Bible. Hope, confidence, positiveness, is characteristic of a true 
Christian, as set forth in the word of God. The undying con- 
viction that Christ loves you and that you love him ; the alle- 
giance of the whole soul to the banner of the Lord and Savior, 
and the knowing that you are fighting under it — this I believe 
to be indispensable to any great growth in grace. And as to 
uncertainty in these matters being a benefit, it is no more a 
benefit than it is to be ignorant as to which side you are on in 
any other great question of moral and spiritual tr.uth. It is a 
positive damage. 

A great many men may be Christians, and yet be in great 
doubt about their experimental evidences; but a man ought 
not to be in doubt, and does not need to be in doubt on this 
subject. The nature of Christian experience, the nature of the 
truth, and the disclosures of God in men's conversion and sanc- 
tification, do not require that they should be in any uncertainty 
in the matter. 



A UG UST 14 : MORNING. 
Set your affection on things above, not on tilings on the earth. — Col. iii., 2. 

Heaven answers with us the same purpose that the tuning- 
fork does with the musician. Our affections, the whole orches- 
tra of them, are apt to get below the concert-pitch, and we take 
heaven to tune our hearts by. In this way, instead of making 
the heavenly state a romance-ground, we are every day framing 
it by the imagination, and ascribing to it all our higher, and 
nobler, and finer ideals, and then taking this state and bringing 
it down to measure our daily life by. And so, instead of tak- 
ing us away from the duties of life, it brings us back to them 
with renewed strength, with better moral discriminations, with 
more patience, more gentleness, and more hope. We thus set 
our affections on heaven without taking them away from the 
world. 



AUGUST. 357 

A man deposits in the bank a thousand dollars, and draws 
on it, and keeps depositing, and keeps drawing. And we de- 
posit what we are in heaven, and then draw on that. . We first 
invest our whole life, and then take back from it for use here, 
and then lay back what we take ; and thus, repeatedly using it 
on earth, and remitting it again to heaven, we maintain a kind 
of heavenly temper while performing our earthly labor. 



AUGUST U: EVENING. 

For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep 
that which I have committed unto him against that day. — 2 Tim. i., 12. 

If I were starting from Europe, and a friend should come to 
me and say, " My only child, my daughter, is going to America, 
and she is all alone on the ship — will you take charge of her 
during the voyage ?" I should be sensibly touched by his confi- 
dence. And, aside from my attachment to the child (if I had 
known her and loved her) and my regard for her parents, do 
you suppose I would suffer my oversight of her to intermit, 
though I might be in need of rest and sleep, and though I 
might be sick and require attention myself? Would I not, 
night and day, carry that charge on my mind, to see that her 
wants were all supplied, and that no accident befell her ? And 
could I live if, by any fault of mine, she walked too near the 
perilous edge, and fell overboard, and was whelmed in the tide 
and lost ? How could I ever look my friend in the face again ? 

Now, when God has put his children in the arms of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, that he may carry them across this perilous voy- 
age of life, and land them safe in heaven, and when Christ has 
promised to present them pure and spotless before the throne, 
do you suppose he, under whose feet is all power, will fail to 
fulfill his promise, and to perform what he has undertaken ? 
If there were nothing but ourselves, we might fear; but as long 
as we have the amplitude, the fidelity, the tenderness, and the 
love of Christ, we have that which is more than a match for all 
our sin. Doubt yourself as much as you will, but do not doubt 
Christ. 



358 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



AUGUST 15: MORNING. 

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, 
yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 
—2 Cor. viii., 9. 

There are some men who complain of their condition in this 
world. They do not know why other men should have been 
born so much better off than they were. You will hear them 
say that they were born under circumstances of great depriva- 
tion, that their early advantages were extremely few, that their 
parentage was very humble, and that they had no such start in 
life as other men have ; and, if they do not find fault with Prov- 
idence, they certainly come very near to doing so, in their spirit 
and disposition. But is there any reason why you should have 
been. born under better circumstances than your Master was? 
He had no father. His mother, without a city, without a house, 
with only a stable for her shelter, was almost an absolute out- 
cast. From that low point he began his life. Was there ever a 
man that was born lower than our Savior was born ? It pleased 
him, the Prince, the Crown of Glory in heaven, to humble him- 
self, and take upon himself the form of a servant ; and, being 
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself unto death, even 
the ignominious death of the cross. 

A great many men, whatever may have been their experience 
in life, are accustomed to complain of the usage they have re- 
ceived in the world. They fill the ears of those who have the 
misfortune to be their friends with lamentations respecting their 
own troubles. But is there any man whose lot will at all com- 
pare with the lot which the Lord Jesus Christ endured when 
on earth ? Can any man measure his experience in life by the 
experience which the Savior had in this world, and say, " I am 
worse off than my Redeemer was ?" Are you more of a man 
of sorrow than he was ? Are you better acquainted with grief 
than he was ? 

AUGUST 15: EVENING. 

Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the 
shame. — Heb. xii., 2. 

I ksrow that Christ is predicted as a man of sorrows, and ac- 



AUGUST. 359 

quainted with grief; yet it is the very wonder and mystery 
of his being that, through every sorrow, his heart sent such a 
flame of love and joy that affliction became the fuel of gladness. 
Do we not know that there are, in our own houses, children 
who, for their father's sake, will bear suffering and not shed a 
tear ? and are they more than Christ ? Are there not parents 
and companions that will carry troubles vehement for the sake 
of those round about them, and make them so luminous that 
none shall see them ? And is it not woman's peculiar office to 
walk a martyr, and yet wear a face of joy, and hope, and radi- 
ancy, so much does her affection overcome and quite subdue 
material suffering and lower forms of disappointment ? How 
many men carry a world of trouble for the sake of their coun- 
try and their fellow-men, and yet stand prophets of peace and 
joy themselves ! How many confessors and martyrs have borne 
inexpressible torments for the sake of truth, singing while the 
flame itself was scorching their flesh, their soul beating down 
the nerve and overcoming the body, and making them triumph- 
ant over physical and mental suffering by the power of higher 
feelings, which quite adumbrated and put out the lower ones ! 
And must we conceive of Christ as one who crouched under 
suffering? Was he the only one that did not know how to 
make clouds carry colors ? Was he one who bore suffering with 
weakness ? Was he one that was overcome and cast down by 
suffering ? No ; the glory of Christ was this, that he accepted 
his mission with such cheerfulness, and gladness, and enthusi- 
asm ; that he did the will of God with such alacrity ; that, 
though he was pre-eminently and above all that ever lived a 
man of suffering, yet he counted it a joy to suffer — that he was 
an overmastering sufferer. 



AUGUST 1Q: MORNING. 

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suf- 
fering ; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ?— 
Rom. ii.,4. 

Has your thankfulness to God been in any proportion to ben- 
efits received ? Has thankfulness accompanied every day's 



360 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

benefaction, and measured the mercies that you have received ? 
Has it ever been a common experience — thankfulness, lively 
and quick ? Has it acted to promote obedience, to make you 
sensitive to God's feelings and wishes ? The child of unnum- 
bered kindnesses, the object of unnumbered mercies, covered 
all over with memorials of God's tender thought and kind con- 
sideration, have the mercies of God, that have been from the 
heavens poured out copious as the light ; that have streamed 
through all the avenues of life abundant as the floods of the 
ocean — these mercies of God, that have watched you from youth 
up to this hour, that have poured abundant every day through 
all the channels of your life — have they ever brought forth in 
you a profound sense of recognition ? Have they ever made 
you yearn to requite God for his goodness, and led you to con- 
sider the obedience and the honor which are due to him from 
you? 

Oh wonderful, oh passing thought, 
The love that God hath had for thee, 

Spending on thee no less a sum 
Than the undivided Trinity. 

Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, 

Exhausted for a thing like this ; 
The world's whole government disposed 

For one ungrateful creature's bliss ! 

What hast thou done for God, my soul ? 

Look o'er thy misspent years and see ; 
Cry from thy worse than nothingness, 

Cry for his mercy upon thee. 

AUGUST U: E YENING. 

thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay 
thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I 
will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy bor- 
ders of pleasant stones. — Isaiah liv., 11, 12. 

If you have built your character on truth, justice, purity, and 
piety, you need not be afraid,. Give yourself liberty. Do not 
ponder nor turn back. Do not fritter away your life by those 
unprofitable introversions and analytical processes of mind by 
which you attempt to detect the nature of your thoughts and 
feelings. Be sure of one thing — that a round, robust, moral 
manhood is safe. Trust it. Give it power. Let it run. No 
man that is doing wickedly ought to be other than anxious ; 



AUGUST. 3gj 

tyit any man that is conscious that he has a judgment that is 
directed toward virtue, and piety, and God, and the welfare of 
his fellow-men, need not be watching himself. The only man 
that is free, the only man that may do what he wants to, is the 
man who wants to do only what is good. He stands strong. 
He is full of joy now, and is full of anticipations of joy in days 
to come, and of certainties of joy when the sun and moon shall 
have passed away. 

Blessed are they that have trusted in the Lord. They shall 
stand firmer than the mountains. Far above the disturbing 
influences that annoy the feeble, the weak, the guilty, and the 
fear-driven, they bathe their head in the upper sky. On them 
rest earliest, and latest, and longest the benignest rays of the 
sun. Afar off they are seen in all colors and all forms of beau- 
ty. They shall be as Mount Zion, which God loveth. 



AUGUST 17: MORNING. 

Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made ns free, and 
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. — Gal. v.,1. 

The ways of religion are ways of pleasantness. They are 
not grievous. You are called to come out into the clear air of 
perfect freedom and unspeakable delight, that you may be — 
what ? Servants of Jesus Christ ? No ; not servants any 
more, but friends ; and not friends only, but sons ; and not sons 
only, but heirs — " heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." 
The fuller, the freer, the stronget, the richer your manhood is, 
the more you glorify God. And if, at last, when you come up 
to the judgment seat, you stand condemned, remember there 
can be no such excuse rendered there as " I would have been 
a Christian, but it seemed a hard service — a bondage." It is 
not a hard service, and there is no bondage in it. Ah ! it will 
be the condemnation of that hour, that God's service was lib- 
erty, that God's way was easy. His yoke is easy and his bur- 
den is light. If the worst thing, the very symbol of bondage 
and burden, is turned to joy, what will be the higher expe- 
riences ? 



362 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



AUGUST 17 : EVENING. 

And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into 
Abraham's bosom ; the rich man also died and was buried. — Luke xvi., 22. 

The one dwelt in magnitude of earthly fame. He touched 
the springs of material power. His life was full of praise and 
glory, but they were of a lower kind. And when he died out 
of his earthly estate, he rose into that land where they do not 
take copper for gold, nor lead for silver. There he is nothing, 
although he was every thing here. 

And that man whom he disdained to look at; that man 
whom he despised ; that man who thought much, and loved to 
do good, but who was poor and of no repute, is every thing 
there. There went up heavenward a radiant procession, amidst 
an outburst of song, heralding the approach of some bold con- 
queror, crownless and sceptreless. It was the resurrected spirit 
of this servant of God. He lived at the bottom here, but there 
he lives in eternal fame. 

Thou that art doing noble things and asking no praise ; thou 
that art living to do good because it is sweet to do good, and 
be like Christ, and bear his cross, and walk with him in sorrow, 
go up ; thy Christ waits for thee. And come down, thou hoary 
head of power, that on earth art despoiling God's fair creation 
as food for thy lowest appetites, and living in selfishness for 
thyself alone ; there is no road between thee and God that does 
not break short on the gulf between earth and heaven. The 
last shall be first, and the first? shall be last. 



AUGUST 18: MORNING. 
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. — 2 Tim- 
othy ii., 3. 

It has pleased God to call his disciples soldiers, and we are 
of the army of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there any thing very 
brave or very good in being filled with Christian sentiments 
and emotions in days of tranquillity and peace ? When God's 
people come under fire, that, after all, is the time to test them. 
Any body can run down hill, but it is not every body that can 



AUGUST. 363 

take a load and walk up hill. Any body can be satisfied when 
he has his own way, but it is not every body that knows how 
to give up his way to God's will. Any body can trust God 
when he has in his hands every thing that he wants, and more ; 
but it is not every body who, when God is taking out of his 
hands continually, can still say, "Though he slay me, yet will I 
trust in him." When God builds up your way, of course you 
can walk on it ; but when he tears up your foundations, and 
puts you in a rugged path, where at every step you are liable 
to stumble, if then you can walk, blessed are ye. 



AUGUST 18: EVENING. 

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh ; yea, though ws 
have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 
—2 Cor. v., 16. 

Have you ever stood in Dresden to watch that matchless 
picture of Raphael's Madonna di San Sisto f Engravings of 
it are all through the Vorld, but no engraving has ever repro- 
duced the mother's face. The infant Christ that she holds is 
far more nearly represented than the mother. In her face there 
is a mist. It is wonder, love, adoration, awe — all these min- 
gled, as if she held in her hands her babe, and yet it was God. 

That picture does not mean to me what it does to the Roman 
Church ; but it is full of meaning to me, because I believe that 
every mother should love the God that is in her child, and that 
every mother's heart should be watching to discern and see 
that in the child which is more than flesh and blood — some- 
thing that takes hold of immortality and glory. And as our 
children grow up around us, we are to seek in them, and per- 
petually, not that which is like the flesh in us, not that which 
affiliates them and us to this earthly mechanical condition, but 
that which is of God, that which is to live after the body dies ; 
and we should strive to lift up our heart's affections into that 
higher sphere, so that, whatever we love, we shall have put it 
above blast and above frost — so that we shall have put it where 
death itself can only glorify it, can never destroy it. An un- 
sanctified affection is always an imperfect one. 



364 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



AUGUST 19: MOBNING. 
The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. — James v., 11. 
God is not indifferent to the task and tax which one under- 
takes when, with so many obstacles to contend against, he en- 
deavors to live a life of obedience. God looks upon it as a 
thing most difficult. He knows it is a thing hard in itself; he 
knows, too, that the majority of men are weak, so that it is ex- 
tremely difficult for them to do right things and avoid wrong 
things. God does not stand like a burning furnace of rage and 
wrath to consume a sinner because he sins. He pities the sin- 
ner. He sympathizes with the poor and the feeble. He is indeed 
more lenient toward the sinner than toward any other creature 
in the universe. Though he sees that his sin is sin ; though he 
sees how devastating its tendencies are ; though he sees how 
full it is of pain, how it may go on breeding pain forever and for- 
ever ; though he has all knowledge of what is the exceeding 
sinfulness of sin, there is no being that looks upon it with more 
pity, more compassion, more sympathetic helpfulness than God. 

AUGUSTS: EVENING. 
Behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought 
forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. — Numb, xvii., 8. 

God gives every body, I think, a cross when he enters upon a 
Christian life. When it comes into his hands, what is it ? It is 
the rude oak, four-square, full of splinters and slivers, and rude- 
ly tacked together. And, after forty years, I see some men car- 
rying their cross just as rude as it was at first. Others, I per- 
ceive, begin to wind around about it faith, and hope, and pa- 
tience, and after a time, like Aaron's rod, it blossoms all over ; 
and at last their cross has been so covered with holy affections 
that it does not seem any more to be a cross. They carry it so 
easily, and are so much more strengthened than burdened by 
it, that men almost forget that it is a cross by the triumph with 
which they carry it. Carry your cross in such a way that there 
shall be victory in it ; and let every tear, as it drops from your 
eye, glance also, as the light strikes through it, with the conso- 
lations of the Holy Ghost. 



AUGUST. 365 

Through the cross comes the crown ; when the cares of this life, 
Like giants in strength, may to crash thee combine, 

Never mind, never mind ; after sorrow's sad strife 
Shall the peace and the crown of salvation be thine. 



AUGUST 20: MORNING. 

"Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he 
standeth or falleth. — Rom. xiv.,4. 

Each of us must appear before the judgment seat of God, 
and give an account of himself. Every man has a right, there- 
fore, to demand liberty of conscience and judgment. Let each, 
then, respect the liberty of the conscience and judgment of ev- 
ery other. Men may seem bad because they do not think as 
you do, and yet they may be better than you on that account. 
They may be worse than you, but that is their business and 
their Maker's. Tour business is to take care of yourself. We 
are not to be indifferent to other men's thoughts and feelings, 
but we are to exercise no authority over their judgments, and 
to pronounce no condemnation against them because they fol- 
low their own consciences. To their own Master they stand 
or fall. "We all stand in our own individuality. Let us help 
and not hinder each other. Indulge in prejudices, bitterness, 
and railing toward none. Let this doctrine have that benign 
influence which it was designed to have in the teachings of 
God's Word, holding us more strictly to duty, more tolerant 
toward others, and exacting only toward ourselves. 

How earnest thou on the judgment seat, 

Sweet heart ? Who set thee there ? 
'Tis a lonely and lofty seat for thee, 

And well might fill thee with care. 

Ah ! the judgment seat was not for thee, 

The servants were not thine, 
And the eyes which adjudge the praise and the blame 

See farther than thine or mine. 



AUGUSTS: EVENING. 
Pray one for another. — James v., 16. 
When your brother offends or does wrong, pray for him. 
Do not report his fault. Rejoice not in iniquity. If we prayed 



366 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

more we should blame less ; we' should be far more tolerant ; 
we should not suspect so much; we should not carry stories 
so much ; we should not do wrong so much. 

There is nothing that makes a man so charitable as that 
which he himself has suffered. Do you see men who have 
great faults of temper, and who are almost intolerable ? If 
you have had faults of temper, you ought to know how to bear 
with these men. If there is any thing that you do not like in 
your neighbor, look and see if you have not the same thing in 
yourself in some form or other. Is there something that makes 
the company of a certain person distasteful to you ? See if the 
same thing, in some mode of development, has not found a place 
in you. Look into your hearts, and learn to be charitable to- 
ward those who sin. It may be that you sin in the sight of 
God a hundred times more than those whom you blame. Oft- 
en, when we are blaming men, our blame is more sinful before 
God than their transgression. 

By confessing our faults one to another, and praying for one 
another, we learn humility on the one side, and on the other 
side that large charity which covers transgression and hides a 
multitude of sins. 



AUGUST 21: MORNING. 

The great day of the Lord is near : it is near and hasteth greatly, even the 
voice of the day of the Lord.— Zeph. i., 14. 

We are moving away, and faster as every cord is loosed that 
binds us to earth, faster as every heart that we loved draws us 
upward. Let us rejoice. And as in autumn the very earth 
prepares for death, as if it were its bridal, and all the sober 
colors of the summer take higher hues, and trees, and shrubs, 
and vines go forth to their rest wearing their most gorgeous 
apparel, as ending their career more brightly than they began 
it, so let our spirits cast off sombre thoughts and sable melan- 
choly, and clothe themselves with all the radiancy of faith, with 
every hue of heavenly joy. 

" Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." 



AUGUST. 367 

AUGUST 21 : EVENING. 
Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who 
is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. — Rom. ix., 5. 

Lsr heaven are our parents, revered and beloved ; there our 
earthly companions ; there our brothers and sisters, who went 
away before we could go, having finished their tasks and 
been called thither; there those children whom with frowns 
of grief we forbade to Christ when they heard his voice say- 
ing " Come unto me." Mightier was their love and his than 
ours ; and, though it broke our hearts, they went, and we live 
to give thanks, and we visit them again in faith, and behold 
their royalty, and feel that we are not worthy now to touch 
their shoe's latchet. There are many who wrought with us 
early, and bore the burden and heat of the day, and did not 
despise the day of small things. They rest from their labors ; 
their works do follow them, and they are to-day blessed. 

Yet, when we look through all those who are martyrs, and 
confessors, and apostles, and holy ministers, and saints, and our 
children, and those who are dear to us as our own soul, still, 
rising above them all, and nobler, and drawing us with stronger 
love, stands the Pierced One, saying to us from out the heavens, 
" Peace be unto you" — still to our eye reaching out the hands 
that were wounded for us, but are mighty against all wounds. 
Thou, Jesus, art our soul's joy and delight. Whom have we in 
heaven but thee ? There is none upon earth that we desire be- 
side thee. 

Thou art my all — to thee I flee ; 

Take me, oh take me to thy keeping ; 
Make me thy vine, thy husbandry ; 

Be thine the seed-time, thine the reaping. 

Oh, there is naught in yon bright sky 

Worthy this worthless heart to own ; 
On earth there's naught ; friends, creatures fly ; 

I pant, my God, for thee alone. 



AUGUST 22: MORNING. 
Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. — 1 Cor. 
vii., 20. 

Commercial sagacity, creative industry, financial ability — ■ 



368 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

these are only so many ways by which one may bring his gifts 
to bear upon the great ends of life, and serve God. Some men, 
who are capable mechanics, capable artists, capable business 
men, wish to do good, and they say, " Do you not think I had 
better preach ?" I think you had. Every man ought to preach. 
If you are a banker, behind the counter is your pulpit, and you 
can preach sermons there which no man in any other situation 
can. By practicing Christian integrity in a business where oth- 
ers take permissions of selfishness, you can preach more effectu- 
ally than in any other way. The Pentecostal day was marvel- 
ous because every man heard the language in which he was 
born, and understood it perfectly. When you do a scrupulous- 
ly honorable thing, where you could do the other thing with- 
out blame of men, and do it in such a way that men know you 
are acting from principle, you preach in a language that money- 
brokers can understand better than any other in the world. I 
might preach the doctrine of Christ to them week in and week 
out, and not come so near to their conscience as you could by 
one honest act clone from the force of Christian principle, where 
you might have done the other thing with impunity. So you 
had better stay and preach the Gospel where your business is. 



AUGUSTS: EVENING. 

I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, 
and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall 
-Isa. xlv. , 23. 



When men make a chain, they make the links separately, 
and join the second to the first, the third to the second, and so 
on till the chain is completed. 

We are links of that chain which God is making. Here is a 
man who undertakes a good work in this world, and carries it 
forward a certain distance, and then dies. But that work does 
not stop. Another man takes it up where he left it, and car- 
ries it forward still farther, and then he dies ; and so this one, 
and that one, and others who follow them, are links of an end- 
less chain that shall reach to the very heaven. One set of men, 
not knowing what they do, bring down the work of God's king- 
dom to a given point, others bring it down still farther, and it 



goes on, stretching out and stretching out, until it is consum- 
mated. We are to rest upon the fact that God is carrying on 
his work in this world ; that he never forgets that work ; that 
it is ever going forward, though we may not see it advance, 
and even though it may seem to be receding. Christ's king- 
dom goes forward from age to age, though we may not discern 
the steps by which it is going forward. God's Word abides, 
and it predicts that the time shall come when the knowledge 
of the Lord shall fill the earth as the waters fill the sea ; and 
that time is coming. 



AUGUST 23: MORNING. 
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God ; and every one that lov- 
eth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God ; 
for God is love. — 1 John iv., 7, 8. 

Love is the river of life in this world. Think not that ye 
know it who stand at the little tinkling rill — the first small 
fountain. Not until you have gone through the rocky gorges, 
and not lost the stream ; not until you have stood at the moun- 
tain passes of trouble and conflict ; not until you have gone 
through the meadow, and the stream has widened and deepen- 
ed until fleets could ride on its bosom ; not until, beyond the 
meadow, you have come to the unfathomable ocean, and poured 
your treasures into its depths — not until then can you know 
what love is. When two souls come together, each seeking to 
magnify the other ; each, in a subordinate sense, worshiping the 
other ; each helping the other ; the two flying together so that 
each wing-beat of the one helps each wing-beat of the other — 
when two souls come together thus, they are lovers. They who 
unitedly move themselves away from grossness and from earth, 
toward the throne crystalline and the pavement golden, are in- 
deed true lovers. 

Father and mother, do you love each other so ? Brother and 
sister, have you Christian love ? Newly come and newly found, 
is this your ideal of love ? Is it some faint, hazy, but beauteous 
dream ? Is it some romance of imagined excellence ? True love 
carries self-denial, labor-pain for another. True love pivots on 
honor and respect — both self-respect and respect for another. 
Aa 



370 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

True love thinks ; true love feels ; true love strives ; true love 
pleases ; true love improves ; true love creates in the soul of 
the one loved a higher life. And so, beginning in this world, 
and loving little and low, men rise up through intermediate 
stages until they touch the higher flights. Old age often sees 
the flame burned out, but the coals that remain are warmer 
than all the flames were. There is no loving like that which 
experience has taught, when that experience is ministered by 
the instruction, and wisdom, and purification of the Holy Ghost. 

Gracious Love, why art thou hidden so on earth, 
That scarce a heart now knows the truth of thy exalted birth ? 
In God himself there lies thy spring, 

Whence in grace dost flow 
To make all creatures, every thing, 
Work man's true good below. 

Loveliest love, why art thou now so all-concealed, 
We can not taste thy sweetness, nor see thy power revealed ? 
Yet thou the bitter world canst fill 

With honey sweet and pure ; 
The sorest pain thy touch can still, 
The heaviest sorrow cure. 



AUGUST 23: EVENING. x 
Strive to enter in at the strait gate. — Luke xiii. , 24. 

If there ever was a mild and calm teacher, it was Christ ; 
and yet, when one asked him, "Are there few that be saved?" 
he said, " Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, I say 
unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." The 
gate was built for entering ; it was designed expressly for that 
purpose ; and God desires that men shall enter, and has made 
arrangements for all to enter, and yet he saw reasons that led 
him to say calmly and affectionately, but plainly, " Strive — 
agonize to enter in." One word from the lips of Christ should 
be more potent than all the reasonings of philosophy ; and see- 
ing clanger, he declared that the circumstances in which men 
lived were such that we should agonize — that is to say, put 
forth every effort to enter eternal life. When Christ speaks 
thus, I know there is peril about ; that there is danger which 
may well demand our attention, and call forth our utmost skill 
and exertion. No man is in so much danger as he who thinks 
there is no danger. 



AUGUST. 



371 



A TJG-UST 24 : MOBNING. 

They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. — Matthew 
ix., 12. 

The moment that any one loses sympathy with a fellow-man, 
that moment he has fallen from the grace of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. The fact that a man is a gambler does not take him 
from the category of my brethren. Has he not a soul ? Is 
there not coming to him a dying hour ? Is not that very man 
who is hardened in transgression a child whom the mother con- 
secrated in her prayers, and are there not mercies waiting for 
him in heaven ? Who am I, then, that I should set him aside 
from human sympathy because he is wicked? It is true I deem 
it my duty to labor with him and show him the truth, but it 
should be done, not in hatred, but in love. Is there a man that 
reels in drunkenness who is so bad that you can say, "I can not 
afford to associate with that man ?" And yet it was to such an 
one that Christ came with such ineffable care, and tenderness, 
and kindness, that since his day it has been for his followers 
to understand that there is no man so low that a person with 
Christ's love in his heart can not go down to him. In some 
respects, as men grow worse, our sympathy for them should 
grow stronger. To whom does the doctor run but to those 
who are desperately sick? Slight sicknesses may suffer delay, 
but dangerous ones must have speed and quick remedy. 



A TJG UBT 24 : EVENING. 

Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? for wo have seen his star in the 
east, and are come to worship him. — Matt, ii., 2. 

Did you ever reflect that there is not, in the whole New Tes- 
tament, one caution or guard against our overtrusting and over 
exalting Christ ? If I may put my being on him ; if I may feel 
that he has suffered for my sins, that he has borne my sorrows, 
and that my life is grafted into him ; and if I may pour out 
every thing in me of thought, and zeal, and worship toward 
him, then blessed be God for him ; but if it is wicked for me 
to do these things, then I can not thank God for him. God 



372 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

should not have added to the misery of our condition by giv- 
ing us such a being, and then making it wicked for us to wor- 
ship him. 

But I am not afraid to worship Christ. I will trust myself 
to worship him. I will trust those dearest to me to worship 
him. In the arms of Christ's love nothing shall hurt you. 
Love on, trust on, worship on. Let go your most ardent de- 
votions toward him. There is no divine jealousy. The anxie- 
ties that afflict the sons of earth in their ideas of God never 
exist in heaven. Christ is the soul's bread — eat ye that hun- 
ger. He is the water of life — drink ye that thirst. He is the 
soul's end — live for him. He is the soul's supreme glory — 
yield to every outgush of joy and enthusiasm of worship that 
springs up in your heart toward him. Those that are in heaven 
bow down before him, and ascribe blessing, and honor, and glory, 
and power to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, 
forever and ever. Let us not, then, fear to worship. 

O Jesus, King unspeakable ! 
Victor, whose triumph none can tell, 
Whose goodness is ineffable — 
Alone to be desired — 

The heavenly choirs thy name, Lord^reet, 
And evermore thy praise repeat ; 
Thou fillest heaven with joy complete, 
Making our peace with God. 

We follow thee with praises there, 

With hymn, and vow, and suppliant prayer ; 

In thy celestial home to share, 



rant us, O Lord, with thee. 



AUGUST 25: MORNING. 

The pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the 
way ; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way 
wherein they should go. — Neh. ix., 19. 

God in Christ Jesus comes down to this world, and says, 
" You are all in mortal conflict. You have all sinned, and are 
sinning. You do not know the way by which you can get 
back. But I have found it." What is the way ? "I, your 
loving God — I, your atoning Savior, am the way. Love me, 
and let me walk with you all the time, and I will see that you 



AUGUST. 373 

have a perpetual consciousness of such a power as will give 
victory to the soul." That is the philosophy of salvation 
through the Lord Jesus Christ — a great soul come down to 
take care of little souls ; a great heart beating its warm blood 
into our little pinched hearts, that do not know how to get 
blood enough for themselves ; a great nature, with the experi- 
ence of ages, and with the infinite love of the effulging God, 
that comes down and says to every poor creature, " My arms 
are open. Come. Can not you walk? Let me take you up 
by my own strength, and I will carry you. Love me, and let 
me love you, and I will save you." 

This is Christ loving the human soul. It is this sympathy 
with men, and this willingness to suffer for them, and bear 
their burdens, and carry their sins, that cleanses a man's soul. 
It is the impact on him of God's nature, it is the opening of the 
soul of God, so that the divine influence flows right in on him, 
it is this that gives my upper nature strength, and hope, and 
elasticity, and victory. 



A UG UST 25 : EVENING. 

And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders 
fell down before the Lamb, baving every one of them harps, and golden vials 
full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. — Rev. v., 8. 

"What a heavenly wonder- must be the Book of Prayer that 
lies before God ! For groans are interpreted there. Mute joys 
gain tongue before God. Unutterable desires, that go silently 
up from the heart, burst forth into divine pleadings when, 
touched by the Spirit, their imprisoned nature comes forth. 
Could thoughts or aspirations be made visible, could they as- 
sume a form that befitted their nature, what an endless proces- 
sion would be seen going toward the throne of God day and 
night ! Consider the wrestlings of all the wretched, the cry of 
orphans, the ceaseless pleadings of the bereaved, and of those 
fearing bereavement ; the prayer of trust betrayed, of hope 
darkened, of home deserted, of joy quenched ; the prayers of 
faithful men from dungeons and prison-houses ; the prayers of 
slaves who found man, law, and the Church twined around and 
set against them, and had no way left to look but upward to- 



374 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

ward God ! The hearts of men by myriads have been pressed 
by the world as grapes are trodden in a wine-press, and have 
given forth a heavenly wine. Beds of long, lingering sickness 
have learned such thoughts of resignation, and such patient 
trust and joy, that the heavenly book is bright with the foot- 
prints of their prayers. The very silence of sickness is often 
more full of richest thought than all the books of earth have 
ever been. 

The influences which brood upon the soul in such a covert as 
the closet are not like the coarse stimulants of earthly thought. 
It is no fierce rivalry, no conflict for victory, no hope of praise or 
hunger of fame, such as throw lurid light upon the mind. The 
soul rises to its highest nature, and meets the influence that 
rests upon it from above. What is the depth of calmness, 
what is the vision of faith, what is the rapture, the ecstasy of 
love, the closet knows more grandly than any other place of 
human experience. 



A UQ UST 26 : MORNING. 

I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and 
truth.— Jer. xxxiii., 6. 

Thekb are many who have been led to put their trust in God 
by great misfortunes. There are instances where it seems as 
though God meant to shut men up to himself. He drives them 
from one step to another ; he cuts them off from one refuge aft- 
er another; he takes away from them one idol after another; 
he brings them to such a state that their soul, from its- own 
mere necessity, must stay itself on him ; and then, when they 
come into that final experience, they exclaim, " Why did I not 
know it before ? I was wandering here and there, seeking rest 
where it could not be found. I was miserable, because I did 
not seek happiness in the right direction. The things by which 
I meant to make life bright and cheerful left life dismal and 
troublous. When I lost these things, and seemed to have lost 
every thing, I found God — I found rest, peace, and satisfac- 
tion." 

It is a brave thing to ride over the waves of the ocean, but 
it is a braver thing to ride over the troubles of life. It is a 



AUGUST. 375 

brave thing to have wings like an eagle's, but the eagle shall 
be weary in its flight before they shall be who mount on the 
wings of faith, soaring above the trials of this world. For such 
there is a great peace — a peace which is represented as flowing 
like a river, inexhaustible, deep, abundant — a peace that refines 
and purifies the soul, that makes life noble here, and that is a 
prophecy of nobility in the life to come. 

I 

AUGUST 26: EVENING. 

I am the Lord that healeth thee. — Exod. xv., 26. 

Discipleship is pupilship, and qualification is need of help 
and willingness to receive it. Are you blind? do you want to 
see? Are you deaf? do you want to hear? Are you sick? do 
you want to be healed ? Are you, in short, sinful in every fac- 
ulty and part, and are you contented with your state, or do 
you desire that God should cleanse you ? If you desire to be 
cleansed, then you have the condition for salvation. You have 
a Savior whose delight it is to heal the sick and cure the wound- 
ed, and you are sick and you are wounded. You should be 
Christ's, and all that you require to make yourself his is that 
you should have faith that he will take such as you, and should 
cast yourself upon him. The provisions of mercy in the Lord 
Jesus Christ are not for men who are entirely delivered from 
sin. Is sin your daily curse and distress ? Are you willing to 
be rescued from it by providence and grace in the Lord Jesus 
Christ ? Remember that the evidence of piety does not consist 
in your sinfulness, but in your wish to be redeemed from sin. 



AUGUSTS: MORNING. 

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son 
to be the propitiation for our sins.— 1 John iv., 10. 

Men mount up into flashes of glorious realization when it 
seems as if God then began to love them, because they then 
first become sensitive to his love. When a man has passed 
through religious changes from darkness to light — when he 
has put off his worldly character and taken on the character 



376 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

of Christ — when, coming out of despondency, the compassion- 
ate Savior rises before him, then he says, " Christ has begun 
to love me." His impression is that the divine love for him 
began when the burden which had weighed down his soul was 
rolled off. 

Just as if a blind man, who had never seen the heavens, nor 
the earth, nor the sweet faces of those that loved him, should 
have a surgical operation performed upon his eyes, so that he 
could see objects around him, and should think to himself, on 
going out of doors, " Oh, how things are blossoming ! The 
earth is beginning to be beautiful. Mountains and hills are 
springing up in every direction. The forms of loving friends 
are being raised up to greet my gaze. And the sun has just 
begun to shine forth from the heavens." But have not these 
things existed since the flood and since the creation, although 
the man's eyes have not before been in a condition to enable 
him to see them ? 



AUGUST 27: EVENING. 
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.— Psalm xxxvii., 7. 

When you have nothing to do, and there is nothing to pro- 
duce anxiety, it is easy to wait — for it is laziness, and all men 
are apt by nature to be lazy. But when there is any thing 
that you have set your heart upon, it is very hard to wait, 
especially if the thing does not come as soon as you expect it 
to. Waiting is easy when it is sinful, and hard when it is a 
duty. The Bible is full both of instances of patient waiting, 
and of exhortations and explanations respecting the duty and 
benefit of waiting — of waiting, not because you can not help 
yourself; of waiting, not because you can not do any thing 
else, but of waiting in the sense of waiting on God; of waiting, 
because you believe that God governs in this world ; that he 
will bring to pass, in his own time, righteousness, justice, and 
truth, and that, therefore, you can afford to wait as long as he 
will have you. That is the ground of true Christian waiting. 

We are very much hindered in our Christian duty of patient 
waiting by the habit of looking at things in their minute parts, 
each particular day, without considering that every thing that 



AUGUST. 377 

happens in this world is part of a great plan of God that runs 
through all time, culminating in eternity, and that we are to 
regard daily events as only elements of greater events that re- 
quire long periods for their consummation. 

Pray on, then. Trust in God. I beseech of you, have faith, 
not in man, but in him that loved you, that redeemed you with 
his precious blood, that sitteth on high, and that doeth all things 
well. 

What can these anxious cares avail, 

These never-ceasing moans and sighs ? 
What can it help us to bewail 

Each painful moment as it flies ? 
Our cross and trials do but press 
The heavier for our bitterness. 

Only thy restless heart keep still, 

And wait in cheerful hope ; content 
To take whate'er his gracious will, 

His all-discerning love hath sent. 
Doubt not our inmost wants are known 
To him who chose us for his own. 



AUGUST 28: MORNING. 
Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. — Psalm lxx., 4. 

I cax scarcely conceive it possible that the soul of a man 
should be in intimate relations with the divine soul without 
having a desire to praise God excited in him. How is it with 
us ? How many dull, drudging days do we have ? How many 
days unillumined by one single wish to utter thanks or glad- 
ness ? How many selfish days of duty ? How many days of 
fear ? How many days of secret uneasiness ? How few days 
do we find in which we experience a spirit of praise, except 
those rare days of health in nerve and pleasure in external con- 
dition ? Now and then, with many persons, there is a salient 
day, a kind of pinnacle, on which they are joyful, and feel like 
praising God. But a true Christian experience would find, 
during some part of every day, the soul in a condition to love 
and praise God. To be in a praising state, one must be in a 
most unselfish condition of mind ; he must live relatively hum- 
ble as before God ; he must be sensitive to his obligations to 
God ; he must have a faith that shall enable him to see God in 
the events which are transpiring about him. The desire to 



378 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

praise God presupposes a large experience. For one to have 
this desire is almost the same as to be a rich and ripe Christian. 



AUGUST 28: EVENING. 

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation 
of the Lord. — Lam. iii., 26. 

It oftentimes is the case, with minds not organized for endur- 
ance, that the reaction caused by strong feeling is such as almost 
to carry them into insanity. There are multitudes of Christian 
persons that go for consolation and instruction to their pastors 
because, as they say, they can not have feeling enough, but 
whose difficulty is that they have had too much feeling. They 
get drunk on religious excitement, and then, when they wake 
from their exhilaration, and find themselves relaxed and in an 
awful state of feeling, they go to the minister to know how it 
is that God has forsaken them and the devil has taken them 
captive. It is not so. They have been gourmands of feeling, 
and they are having a slight experience of what the Bible 
means when it says that we can not see God and live. Hav- 
ing had an excess of feeling which has consumed their strength, 
they have come into a corresponding excess in the opposite di- 
rection, and they think that they are being tempted of the devil. 
It is only because they have been burning ten wicks where they 
should have burned but one, that the devil seems to be tempt- 
ing them. Their present darkness bears the same relation to 
the intense light in which they have been indulging that heavi- 
ness and sleepiness at the end of the day bear to the activity 
of noonday. Nature is praying for a chance to go to sleep. 
Their feelings are all crying out against such a squandering of 
their forces ; and much of what is called being abandoned of 
God, and the hiding of God's face, is nothing but God putting 
his merciful hand on faculties that have been overtaxed, and 
saying, " Hush ! go to sleep." 



AUGUST 29: MORNING. 
Fight the good fight of faith.— 1 Tim. vi., 12. 
If you mean to live for immortality, it will not do for you to 
live by half measures. You must give your whole soul to the 



AUGUST. 379 

great and sublime end of living with God forever and forever. 
You must rank every thing as relative to that end. It is worth 
every man's endeavor, and it must have every man's endeavor. 
If self-denial, therefore, in you is earnest, if it is bold, if it is 
almost unthinking ; if you go into the work of religion, the 
work of right living, the work of manhood, as a warrior goes 
into battle, then it becomes easy. Then the conflict which the 
apostle likens to that physical warfare in which the excitement 
and wild exhilaration are such that the soldier does not feel his 
wounds, nor notice his fatigue, nor mind his circumstances — 
that conflict becomes easy. That which we know to be the 
case in the lower life in this respect, is still more so in the 
higher life, where a man gives himself to it wholly, with all his 
heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. A man who means to 
live religiously, and puts his whole power into it, lives easily, 
and no other man can live easily. 



AUGUSTS: EVENING. 

When he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's 
have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! — Luke xv., 17. 

When the prodigal first came to himself, he thought of his 
father and his fatherland, and determined to go back and con- 
fess his wrong. And he made up his story. "I will go to my 
father," he said, " and acknowledge my fault, and ask him to 
forgive me and take me again, and let me be his servant." He 
started ; but he was not permitted to go clear back before he 
was welcomed. The father saw him afar off, and had compas- 
sion on him, and ran to meet him. Although the father was 
the one that was injured, although the father was right and the 
son was all wrong, it was the father that went and made the 
concession, as it were. When the son began his confession, the 
father cut it in two, and called for the robe, and the sandals, 
and the ring, and the feast. And there was blessedness in that 
man's heart. He had risen into manhood ; he had come to him- 
self; his father had found him ; and he was indeed blessed. 

Return, return thee to thine only rest, 

Lone pilgrim of the world, 

Far erring from the fold — 
By the dark night and risen storms distressed ; 



380 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

List, weary lamb, the Shepherd's anxious voice, 
And once again within his arms rejoice. 

Return, return, thy fair white fleece is soiled, 
And by sharp briers rent — 
Thy little strength is spent ; 

Yet he will pity thee, thou torn and spoiled. 
There, thou art cradled on his tender breast ; 

Now never more, sweet lamb, forsake that rest. 



AUGUST 30: MORNING. 
Prepare ye the way of the Lord.— Matt, iii.,3. 
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience.— Rev. ii., 2. 

Waiting when you should work is just as bad as would be au- 
dacious interference in things above our reach. Every man must 
do what he can, and men are much more in danger of doing too 
little than too much. Indolence is more frequent than irrever- 
ence. No shipmaster interferes upon God's prerogatives when 
he takes care of his ship in a storm. No farmer feels that he 
is encroaching upon God's sovereignty when he cultivates the 
crops for which he prays. He asks for daily bread, and then 
earns it. No manufacturer or business man feels that he is 
trespassing upon God's prerogative when he looks after his 
own business. They believe in God's blessing, but they al- 
ways say, " If a man would receive God's blessings, he must 
prepare a soil for them to blossom on." 

So it is in spiritual things. We are to work in reliance upon 
means, and then wait for God's blessing. And waiting for God 
to do for us what we can do for ourselves, although it may bear 
the name of religion, is really nothing but infidelity. Waiting 
for God implies first doing faithfully all that in you lies, and 
then waiting patiently for the result. No man waits for God 
that does not first prepare the way of the Lord. Every man 
is, as far as he can, to take the blessings which he needs, and 
when he has gone as far as his experience, or light, or teaching 
enables him to go, then he is to be patiently expectant. 

AUGUST 30: EVENING. 
If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.— 2 Cor. v., 17. 
A new creature in Christ Jesus is the apostolic definition of 



AUGUST. 381 

being a Christian. It is the endeavor to substitute for the 
worldly character a divine and spiritual one. The kingdom of 
God is to be within us. The evidences of it are to be hope, 
and joy, and faith, and love, and fidelity. And the aim of the 
true Christian life is not so much to keep its ordinances, or to 
believe in this or that disclosure of technical truth : it is larger 
manhood, patterned on Christ Jesus. It is to make yourself 
nobler, purer, sweeter, truer, more faithful, more heroic, and 
more worthy to look God in the face and say, " I am thy son." 
We are exhorted to live worthy of the vocation with which we 
are called, and that vocation *is sonship in Christ Jesus. "We 
are to live so that we shall feel worthy to say, " God is my 
Father, and I am his son." 



A JJO UST 31 : MOBNING. 

Ob come, let us worship and bow down : let us kneel before the Lord oar 
maker. — Psalm xcv.,6. 

When a man, standing before a magnificent work of art, or 
some wonderful phenomenon of nature — some rugged moun- 
tain, some thunderous fall like that of Niagara, or some beau- 
tiful landscape — finds his taste so awakened that he loses com- 
mand of himself, and breaks forth into an ecstasy of admiration, 
his sensations are transcendent. 

But when we stand, not before unspeaking canvas, or inert 
mountains, or senseless water, but in the presence of some hero 
— some man that has stood among men nobler than the noblest, 
and truer than the truest, and has carried the fate of a nation 
in his hand without betraying it — some Kossuth or some Gari- 
baldi — then how do we tremble in transports of delight ! It is 
a joyful intoxication. It is an ecstasy. 

What, then, ought our feelings to be when we stand, not be- 
fore a man, but before the everlasting God — that Being who 
created the innumerable orbs of which this earth is but a speci- 
men ; whose ways generations and ages have sought in vain to 
find out ; of whose love all the affections of father, and mother, 
and husband, and wife, and child, and brother, and sister, and 
friend, and lover are but faint intimations, and of whose attri- 



382 



MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



butes the divine qualities of men are but the slightest hints ? 
And when he comes as our Maker and Preserver, and the Au- 
thor of the eternal bliss prepared for us, how blessed ought to 
be the prerogative and privilege of making him the object of 
our highest worship. 

Oh can it be that Power divine, 
Whose throne is light's unbounded blaze, 

While countless worlds and angels join 
To swell the glorious song of praise, 

Will deign to lend a favoring ear 

When I, poor sinful mortal, pray ? 
Yes, boundless goodness J, he will hear, 

Nor cast the meanest wretch away. 

Then let me serve thee all my days, 

And may my zeal with years increase ; 
For pleasant, Lord, are all thy ways, 

And all thy paths are paths of peace. 



AUGUST 21: EVENING. 

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross 
daily, and follow me. — Luke ix., 23. 

Our self-denials lie just where our duties do. If it is diffi- 
cult for you to speak, overcome that difficulty, and in that way 
you will practice self-denial. If it is hard for you to be benev- 
olent, correct your avarice, and make it give away the things 
that you would hoard, and thus you will practice self-denial. 
Are you proud? Then practice self-denial by being humble. 
Are you envious ? Then the way for you to be self-denying is 
to cultivate generosity in your consideration of other men's 
condition as compared with your own. 

Now and then we get, through some little event which comes 
under our notice, such as the performance of a generous deed, 
a conception that reveals to us for a moment the carriage of 
our life with respect to self-denial. But how many of us keep 
such an accurate account of our daily conduct that we know 
our tendencies in this regard — that we know whether we are 
living all the time to make men serve us, to secure prosperity 
for ourselves, to make every thing work in our favor, or wheth- 
er, while we are diligent and exact in business, and considerate 
of our own interests, our desire and aim are perpetually to work 
for the benefit of others ? 



SEPTEMBER. 333 



SEPTEMBER 1 : MORNING. 

And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them 
from out of your sight ; and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God 
hath promised unto you. — Josh, xxiii., 5. 

We are in many respects like the Israelites. We have a 
promised land, into which we are brought by our hopes in 
Christ. Our promised land is just like Palestine. Its moun- 
tains and passes are filled with unsubdued inhabitants. They 
are all about us. We, too, are watched. Often incursions are 
suddenly made against us, and we are carried into captivity or 
are humbled in battle. Often, too, the hand of the Lord is lift- 
ed up in our behalf, and the battle goes against the inhabitants 
of the land, and we beat them down, and we drive them back, 
so that they have no more dominion over us for a time. We 
are full of conflicts. Yet we maintain our ground, and hold 
ourselves only by vigilance, as in the presence of a continually 
watching enemy. This great warfare goes on with all true 
Christians, and goes on just in proportion as they are truly 
Christian ; just in proportion as their standard of Christian life 
is high; just in proportion as they are determined to bring 
every thought and feeling into subjection to the Lord Jesus 
Christ; just in proportion to the comprehensiveness and rich- 
ness of that which they mean by being Christians in their life 
and disposition. 

SEPTEMBER 1 : EVENING. 
Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the" Lord. Behold, the 
husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long pa- 
tience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient ; 
stablish your hearts ; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh— James v., 7, 8. 

I had a bed of asters last summer that reached clear across 
my garden in the country. Oh, how gayly they bloomed ! 
They were planted late, and they came up late. On the sides 
were yet fresh blossoming flowers, while the tops had gone to 
seed. Early frosts came, and I found one day that that long 
line of radiant beauty was seared, and I said, " Ah ! the season 
is too much for them ; they have perished ;" and I bade them 



384 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

farewell. I disliked to go and look at the bed. It seemed al- 
most like a grave-yard of flowers. But four or five weeks ago 
one of my men called my attention to the fact that along the 
whole line of that bed there were asters coming up in the great- 
est abundance ; and I looked, and behold, for every plant that 
I thought the winter had destroyed there were fifty plants that 
it had planted. What did those frosts and surly winds do? 
They caught my flowers, they slew them, they cast them on 
the ground, they trod with snowy feet upon them, and they 
said, leaving their work, " That is an end of you." And the 
next spring there were, for every root, fifty witnesses to rise up 
and say, " By death we live." 

And as it is in the floral tribe, so it is in God's kingdom. By 
death came everlasting life. By crucifixion and the sepulchre 
came the throne. and the palace of the eternal God. By over- 
throw came victory. Do not be afraid to suffer. Do not be 
afraid to be overthrown. A man cast down rises stronger than 
ever he was before. It is by being cast down and not de- 
stroyed ; it is by being shaken to pieces, and having vitality in 
every piece, that men become men of might, and that one be- 
comes a host ; whereas men that yield to the appearance of 
things, and go with the world, have their quick blossoming, 
their momentary prosperity, and then their end, which is an 
end forever. 

Thou wearest not the crown, 

Nor the best course canst tell ; 
God sitteth on the throne, 

And guideth all things well : 
Trust him to govern, then, 

No king can rule like him. 
How wilt thou wonder, when 

Thine eyes no more are dim, 
To see these paths which vex thee, 

How wise they were and meet ; 
The works which now perplex thee, 

How beautiful, complete ! 



SEPTEMBER 2 : MORNING. 

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liber- 
ally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. — James i., 5, 6. 

The oftener you go to God for help, the more welcome you 



SEPTEMBER. 385 

are. When a man comes to you for counsel concerning things 
that are important as affecting his welfare, it not only does 
not impoverish you to give him the benefit of your knowledge 
and wisdom, but you are gratified at his consulting you, and 
you take pleasure in lending yourself to him to that extent. I 
can not conceive of a man who, having a store of discreet 
knowledge, should be unwilling to use it for the succor of his 
fellow-men. If ducats were as plenty with me as thoughts, I 
should be most happy to lend to every body. 

Now, when we go to God, we ask him to do things that please 
him. It is more blessed for him to give to you and to help you 
than not to do it. And when a man is in trouble, and goes to 
Gocl, and says, " I have done all I can. I do not know what to 
do more. I am willing to suffer or to be relieved. Thy will 
be done," I believe that then God hears and answers prayer, 
even though the trouble be of a secular nature. I do not be- 
lieve that in doing it he violates natural laws. I believe, on 
the contrary, that he controls natural laws, and makes them 
perform errands of mercy. I should' feel almost as though I 
were an orphan if that doctrine were taken out of the world. 



SEPTEMBER 2 : EVENING. 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,.and a light unto my path. — Psalm cxix., 

105. y* __ 

J> one has a Bible of his own — and every one should have ; 
if one has a Bible that he reads to the exclusion of every other 
one — and every person should have a Bible that he is as used 
to as he is to his father's gardener door-yard, so that he can 
readily put his hand on any chapter or verse in it — if one has 
such a Bible, he may register any significant event by marking 
certain texts or passages. In that way he will form the habit 
of selecting passages of Scripture which are adapted to the va- 
rious exigencies of this life. And how beautiful it is ! If you 
keep a kind of register, so that the text refers to and is associ- 
ated with the event, your Bible becomes a memorial. You are 
setting up, all the way through it, stones of remembrance, as it 
were. You are providing a record for your old age. By-and- 
by, when you take down your Bible, and put on your glasses, 
Bb 



386 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

and look back upon your past life, not only will it be the Word 
of God, but you will find h©w the Word of God fed you in the 
wilderness, strengthened you in sickness, and comforted you in 
circumstances of discouragement. How many things a man 
can record on the fly-leaves of his Bible which will afford him 
pleasure and profit in after life ! How precious that Bible will 
become to him when he has woven it into his experience as a 
kind of epitomizing of his life ! 



SEPTEMBER 3 : MORNING. 
This is tlie day which the Lord hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in 
it. — Psalm cxviii., 24. 

I have noticed that the slender brook which carries the mill 
is more musical on Sunday than on any other day, because the 
mill stands still, and the brook, having nothing to do with its 
water, gurgles over the rocks, and flounders over the dam, and 
makes a thousand times more merry noise than on any other 
day. But Monday comes, and the gates are hoisted, and the 
mill runs, and the brook is not so musical, but the mill is more 
so. The mill did nothing on Sunday, and the brook is doing 
more on Monday than it did on Sunday. It played on Sunday, 
but it works on Monday. And Christians, as it were, play in the 
spirit, and have a holy jollity on Sunday; it is a holiday for them. 
Nor would I undervalue their experience or joy. But they are 
not so busy when they sing, and pray, and rejoice in the sanc- 
tuary as when, by the power of some moral emotion, they are 
combating temptation, and resisting pride, and overcoming self- 
ishness, and building again the kingdoms of this world with the 
holy stones of the New Jerusalem. Then, when piety costs ; 
then, when it means bearing, heroism, and achievement ; not 
when it seeks joy, but when it seeks battle — then men are 
nearest to God and most like Christ. When a man stands upon 
the deck, and at the bench, and by the forge, and in the furrow, 
and in the colliery, then, if ever, if he has a life to live of true 
piety, is the time ; and there, at the post of duty, is the place. 

Thou art a day of mirth ; 
And where the week-days trail on ground, 

Thy flight is higher, as thy birth. 
Oh let me take thee at the bound, 



SEPTEMBER. 387 

Groping with thee from seven to seven, 
Till that we both, being tossed from earth, 
JTly hand-in-hand to heaven. 

SEPTEMBER 3 : EVENING. 
To Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, 
that speaketh better things than that of Abel. — Heb. xii., 24. 

The dearest place, to the imagination of the Jew, that there 
was on earth was old Jerusalem, hoary and grand. And yet 
ye are come to a higher Jerusalem than that, says the apostle. 
" Ye are not come to the sound of a trumpet and the voice of 
words, which voice they that heard entreated that the word 
should not be spoken to them any more. Ye are come unto 
Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the. heavenly 
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the 
general assembly and church of the first-born, which are writ- 
ten in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spir- 
its of just men made perfect." Ye are not come to that sight 
which was so terrible that even Moses said, "I exceedingly 
fear and quake ;" but ye are come " to Jesus, the Mediator of 
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speak- 
eth better things than that of Abel." Not ye are coming, 
but ye are come. It is in the present. It is a part of the privi- 
lege which belongs to the early ministration of your faith. Ye 
have come. The very fact that you spiritually are leaning on 
Christ Jesus gives you advent and access. Every true disci- 
ple affiliated with Christ belongs to this great household. Do 
not fear, therefore, to accept Christ, for it gives you all that you 
Jiad before, and a thousand times more. It advances you out 
of the twilight, and out of the storm-clad horizon of your past 
faith, into the glorious illumination of a more spiritual worship, 
where all forms of fear and ghastly motives of terror cease, and 
where companionship, and divine guidance, and infinite bless- 
ings await you. 



SEPTEMBER 4 : MORNING. 
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given — 
Eph. iii., 8. 

The humility of the Bible is not the exaggerated sense of a 



388 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

man's wretched imperfection. ISTo man is humble who is look- 
ing down. Humility is the sense of such ineffable excellence, 
that when a man's aspiration looks up, and he compares what 
he is with what he would be, he is humble. It is a state of ap- 
preciation in a man of excellence, and an ideal of an excellence 
beyond, sitting in judgment on his relative position, that makes 
humility. Humility is a head-up quality, not a dragging, mis- 
erable, mean feeling. Many men have mortified pride, and call 
that humility. Many men have the blues, and call them humil- 
ity. Many men palm off all the wretched and reactionary feel- 
ings of their nature, and call them humility. Humility is one 
of the noblest and one of the most resplendent of all the expe- 
riences o£ the soul. When every part of a man's nature is sen- 
sitive and apprehensive, and when the sense of character and 
of being is so radiant and large that the man feels his own rel- 
ative imperfection, compared with that which he now perceives 
to be possible, then it is that humility is born. It is the child 
of aspiration. 

SEPTEMBER 4 : EVENING. 
Confess your faults one to another. — James v., 16. 

As long as you make your faults a bulwark to stand behind 
and fight me, so long I am your enemy and you are my foe. 
But if we could only understand how imperfect we are; if our 
hearts were only filled with a true humility; if we felt every 
day of our lives that God had a hard task to get along with 
us, it would make us far more gentle and amiable. It is not 
the offense, but the defense of the offense, that makes it hard 
for us to bear with one another. A man may say to me, "You 
are a vile sinner ;" he may rain his words on me like blows ; 
but if he comes back when his passion has gone down, with 
tears in his eyes, and says, " Oh I forgive me ; I did not mean 
it," it is all gone, quicker than a flash of lightning. I love him 
all the more. The fault is not hard to bear. It is the defend- 
ing the fault, it is the refusing to make up under fault, that 
rankles, and makes us ugly in return. Where there is one ugly 
man, there are generally two. 

How wise, then, is James's command, " Confess your faults 
one to another." 



SEPTEMBER. 



SEPTEMBER 5 : MORNING. 

Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. — Heb. 
xii.,12. 

Ought there not to be in us such a likeness of Christ that 
we shall have toward sinful men the same spirit that he has ? 
Those who have not the spirit of Christ are none of his ; and, 
in some degree, ought we not to have that spirit of mercifulness, 
and hopefulness, and gentleness, by which he drew imperfect 
and evil men to him ? If we are Christ's, ought not his Spirit 
to be reproduced in our conduct and our lives ? I beseech of 
you, look upon your children, and sorrow for them as Christ 
sorrows for you. Look upon the scholars in your class, and 
feel for their want as Christ feels for your want. Are there 
those in your families whose imperfection. is your daily annoy- 
ance? But is not their misery more than your annoyance? 
Do you rail at them ? are you bitter against them ? and is there 
no heart in you to feel toward their imperfection as Christ feels 
toward yours ? Are you met by wicked men in the world, and 
are you tempted to give railing for railing, and revenge for 
wrong ? Remember Christ, who meets sin and wrong with pa- 
tience and gentle restoration, and do you meet it in the same 
way. Carry yourself, as much as in you lies, in the spirit, not 
merely of peace, but of recuperative love, and God shall give 
you many out of your house, many out of your Church, and 
many out of your community. Blessed are they that lead souls 
from their sins. They shall shine as stars in the firmament for- 
ever and ever. 

SEPTEMBER 5 : EVENING. 
They should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, 
though he be not far from every one of us. — Acts xvii., 27. 

I read an account of a man who, traveling at night, not long 
ago, in the midst of a snow-storm, and seeking a house, but con- 
cluding that he should not be able to reach it, turned over his 
sleigh, and wrapped himself in his buffalo robe, and waited till 
morning, when he found that his sleigh was turned up against 
the door-yard fence of the very house that he was seeking. 



390 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Now, hundreds of Christians are sleeping in God's door-yard, 
and do not know it. They have fulfilled every condition of the 
Gospel, and nothing is wanting but that they should look up 
and say, " Why, there is the very house that I was looking for !" 

If you are conscious of your own want and imperfection, and 
if you are satisfied that it is the purpose of your life to fulfill 
the law of God, then you are in that state in which the Lord 
Jesus Christ takes men, and all you have to do to be happy is 
to feel, " Christ is my Savior, and I am saved, not because I am 
perfect, but through his redeeming love." God is near to many 
men that are unconscious of his presence. The perfume of di- 
vine love is around about many men that do not perceive it. 
You are like men who have no sense of smell. You are in the 
garden of the Lord, and you call it a wilderness. But wake, 
oh soul, out of despondency ! If you are — as you know you 
are — sinful, and you long for something better, take hold of the 
hand of Christ, and go toward it. He will hold fast to your 
hand, and will lead you to the end ; and then you will be saved, 
not because you are perfect, but because he has swept you into 
that charmed and blessed sphere where the flesh and the world 
shall drag us down no more, but where our enfranchised man- 
hood shall lift itself up in ineffable glory, crystalline purity, 
and perfect symmetry. May God bring us all there. 

I know thou art not far, 
My God, from me ; yon star 
Speaks of thy nearness, and its rays 
Fall on me like thy touch. Oil raise 
These eyes of mine 
To see thy face, even thine, 
My Father and my God ! 

Thou wilt be nearer yet, 
And one day I shall get 
The fuller vision of thy face, 
In all its perfect light and grace, 
When I shall see thee as thou art, 
And in thy kingdom bear my part, 
My blessed King and God ! 



SEPTEMBER 6 : MORNING. 
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by 
Christ Jesus.— Phil, iv., 19. 

When I think how I love my children ; when I think how 



SEPTEMBER. 39 ! 

my heart clasps those that are dear to me, as a fragrant vine 
clasps the branches of the tree upon which it grows ; when I 
think how I could almost let go my own life for their sake ; 
and then, when I think that I do not know how to love, that 
God is the only true lover, that by the amazing wealth of the 
tides that flow from his heart he is giving to me the little affec- 
tion that I am capable of experiencing, I feel as a daisy must 
if the sun, addressing it, should say, " Oh, sweet daisy, the light 
which I shed I mean for thee !" The daisy, seeing the whole 
hemisphere of light, the whole day, says to itself, " What shall 
I do with such a flood of light ? Oh, who ever had such loving 
as the sun gives to me ! I have no room for it all." And the 
sun sweeps on, filling the heavens and the earth, and comes 
again, and continues pouring forth its light, and does not stop 
because the daisy can not hold it all. And so God pours out 
the tides of his love, not according to the cup-like, acorn pro- 
portions of my soul, not according to my ability to receive, but 
according to his infinite resources and his endless power to 
give. 

"Will you doubt such a one ? Are you afraid to venture, with 
him to stand by you and help you ? Behold, in your path stand 
the fullness, and mercy, and helpfulness of your God ! God 
knows every tear that yOu shed ; he sees your silent thoughts 
and feelings ; he knows every part of your life. No rude at- 
tritions, no yearnings unsatisfied, no griefs of love, no aspira- 
tions unfulfilled — none of these things are hidden from God. 
He is the Father revealed in Jesus Christ as the Lover, and 
he says, "Because I am working in you to will and to do of 
my good pleasure, be of good cheer, take courage, and work 
out your own salvation." 

God grant that we may hear the voice, feel the inspiration, 
and win the victory ! 



SEPTEMBER 6 : EVENING. 

If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father. — John 
xiv.,28. 

Oh, mother, my heart breaks with your heart when your 
cradle is empty; but shall I call back the child? Nay; sooner 



392 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

pluck a star out of heaven than call back that child to this 
wintry blast. Shall I call back your young, and dear, and 
blooming friend ? Nay ; you are left in some bitterness for a 
time, but make not a man out of angel again. Let him rejoice. 
In all our outlook, dying is triumphing. Not any bower of 
roses is so festooned in June. Not where the jessamine and 
honeysuckle twine, and lovers sit, is there so fair a sight, so 
sweet a prospect, as where a soul in its early years is flying 
away out of life and out of time through the gate of death — 
the rosy gate of death ; the royal gate of death ; the golden 
gate of death ; 'the pearly gate of death. It is guilt and fear 
that blacken dying. Hope and love make it sweeter than be- 
ing born. And so the day of death is better than the day of 
birth ; and it is better to go to the house of mourning than to 
the house of feasting. It is really so to those who know it and 
put it to proof. 



SEPTEMBER 7 : MORNING. 

But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. — Luke xxiv., 1G. 

Not long ago there was a researcher of art in Italy who, 
reading in some book that there was a portrait of Dante paint- 
ed by Giotto, was led to suspect that he had found where it had 
been placed. There was an apartment used as an outhouse for 
the storage of wood, hay, and the like. He sought and obtained 
permission to examine it. Clearing out the rubbish, and exper- 
imenting upon the whitewashed wall, he soon detected the signs 
of the long-hidden portrait. Little by little, with loving skill, 
he opened up the sad, thoughtful, stern face of the old Tuscan 
poet. 

Sometimes it seems to me that thus the very sanctuary of 
God has been filled with wood, hay, and stubble, and the di- 
vine lineaments of Christ have been swept over and covered 
by human plastering, and I am seized with an invincible desire 
to draw forth from its hiding-place and reveal to men the glory 
of God as it shines in the face of Christ Jesus. It matters little 
to me what school of theology rises or falls, so only that Christ 
may rise and appear in all his Father's glory, full-orbed, upon 
the darkness of this world. 



SEPTEMBER. 393 



SEPTEMBER 7 : EVENING. 
, Jesus heard that they had cast him out ; and when he had found him, he 
said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God ? He answered and said, 
Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him ? And Jesus said unto him, 
Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, 
Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. — John ix., 35-38. 

Never has a man undertaken one step in the right direction, 
and begun to suffer for it, that Christ did not look after him. 
Tou may not see him; he may not be visible to you just yet; 
but he is on your track. He will find you. Do not murmur, 
do not repine that you have taken one step. • Do not be sorry 
that you have begun to see. Do not be afraid of being cast 
out. No matter if your Church does disown you ; the Lord 
Jesus Christ is mightier than any church. No matter if your 
neighbors do desert you ; the Lord Jesus Christ is more to you 
than all the men in any community could be. No matter if 
your parents forswear you ; the Lord Jesus Christ is better to 
you than parents. No matter if your own selves seem to sink 
in solitariness and in darkness ; the Lord Jesus Christ is yours, 
and he offers not simply to continue his past mercies to you, 
but to take you by the hand and lead you on to higher and 
nobler experiences. Trust him now, that you may know him 
more fully hereafter. 



SEPTEMBER 8 : MORNING. 

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. — Eph. iii., 19. 

All the hints and tokens in our possession respecting the in- 
tercourse of Christ with his disciples show that it was rich be- 
yond all conception in the element of love. And to a nature 
such as his, what must have been men who could not at all re- 
pay the love that he bestowed upon them ? He gave them as 
much as they could take, but oh, how much more was there to 
give ! And how little could they receive ! To say that Christ 
filled their hearts is like saying that the River Amazon fills the 
shells along the banks of the river. But how much does it take 
of the Amazon to fill those shells ? Besides that, what volumes 



394 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

roll out into the ocean ? Christ filled those little disciple-cups, 
and the great flood of his love seemed undiminished by a drop, 
and moved on and on. And in the realities of love he was 
alone, as he was alone in the realities of imagination, of reason; 
and of all that which was most dear to him. There were none 
that could talk with him, or understand him when he talked. 
He was obliged to say to his disciples, "I have yet many things 
to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now." 

SEPTEMBEB 8 : EVENING. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my 
body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. — 1 Cor. 
xiii.,3. 

Have you the disposition of love ? Do your father and moth- 
er say of you, " This child, that used to be so wayward and ill- 
tempered, is now well-behaved and gentle ?" Do your broth- 
ers and sisters now say of you, " Since my brother joined the 
Church he is changed in disposition. Before he was disobliging 
and selfish, but now he is kind and generous, and manifests a 
loving spirit ?" Do your tenants say, " I should have known 
that he had become a Christian by the way he collects his 
rents ?" Do your business associates and your neighbors sa) r , 
" How much more fair and just he is in his dealings than he 
used to be ?" Is your nature, that once was as hard as a gran- 
ite rock, now soft and mossy on the surface, so that vegetation 
might almost grow upon it ? It is your life that is to deter- 
mine whether you have the spirit of Christ ; and if you have 
not the spirit of Christ you are none of his. Though you have 
passed through hell and heaven ; though you have been attend- 
ed by angels in long processions every day since you heard of 
God ; though you have the gift of prophecy, and understand 
all knowledge ; though you have all faith, so that you could 
remove mountains, if you have not love, these things profit you 
nothing. 

Holiest Love, how we forget thy very name, 
So that thy heavenly nature on earth wins only blame ! 
While lip-religion fills the land, 

Nay, worldly talk is heard, 
Till Christian souls in peril stand 
To lose the living Word. 



SEPTEMBER. 395 

God-fearing Love, why do thy foes, alas, prevail? 
Tor many boast the Christian name, yet at thy service quail : 
They bear naught, shun naught, love their pelf, 

Fast not, and run no race, 
Nor pray, nor rest, nor die to self, 
Yet trust they shall find grace. 



SEPTEMBER 9 : MORNING. 
In honor preferring one another. — Rom. xii., 10. 

He that is the most tolerant, the most patient, the most char- 
itable, the most gentle, and that finds himself able to love the 
most, and to see the most in each person to admire and to thank 
God for — that man, I think, stands highest in the kingdom of 
heaven. Yea, he that sees these things not only, but in honor 
prefers men ; who feels that other men are better than he, per- 
haps, in these respects, when they are not ; he that is willing to 
serve his fellow-men for the sake of that which is in them ; he 
that has that illustrious nobility that shone in Paul, when he 
said, " Some, indeed, preach Christ even of envy and strife, not 
sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds." " What 
then ? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in 
truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice;" he that is 
willing to suffer for others, and to bear others' faults, if by such 
means he can develop the divine element in them — that is the 
man that stands nearest to the heart of God. Such men are 
the true benefactors of the world. 

It is not the trumpeters that fight the battles, though you 
would think so to hear them. And it will not be the men that 
make the loudest proclamations, or that utter them with the 
most eloquent lips, that shall stand highest in the world that 
is to come. 

SEPTEMBER 9 : EVENING. 
Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.— Ephes. 
v., 19. 

As I grow older, there is an increasing love for those hymns 
that " seem," in the language of another hymn, " to throw their 
arms about the neck of Christ and plead." I have, more and 
more, a sense of the soul's need of God, and somehow the old- 



396 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

fashioned hymns, that plead on their knees, as it were, meet my 
wants better than the newer hymns. Those are beautiful and 
useful, but I find myself guided back to the more childlike and 
utter abandonment of the soul before God ; and it seems to me 
there is no person who has been a Christian who has not, first 
or last, walked in the footsteps of these hymns of prostration, 
and yearning, and pleading. The experience may not come in 
a concentrated form ; it may not come so that one can take it 
out, and look at it intellectually, and pronounce it to be just 
this or that ; but humiliation before God, in view of one's sin 
and of one's consciousness of the sufficiency of Christ, and an 
irresistible yearning for Christ's help, love, and forgiveness — 
these have been, in a greater or less degree, the experience of 
every man that has the right to call himself a Christian. 



SEPTEMBER 10 : MORNING. 
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. — Eph. iii., 17. 

The reception of Christ by the heart is by an actual experi- 
ence — by such a co-operation of the reason with the imagination 
that we are able to bring the invisible person near to us, and 
so bountifully reproduce him, and so beautifully set him forth, 
that he becomes to us the " chiefest among ten thousand," and 
the " one altogether lovely," so that every sweet thing in us 
goes out to him as every dewdrop in the sunshine evaporates 
and goes up toward the sun. This is receiving Christ by faith. 
It is not the rejecting of the senses; it is the non-using of them 
rather. It is not the despising of the reason ; it is an auxiliary 
use of the reason. But it is the manly way of taking hold of 
the Lord Jesus Christ by the enthusiasm of love, and making 
him the supreme object of our desire and of our allegiance. 
This is receiving Christ by faith ; and if we continue so to re- 
ceive him, then he dwells in our hearts by faith — that is, by 
heart-sanctifying love. 

There can be no Christianity to the man who does not per- 
sonally take Christ by faith. There is no substitute for this 
personal experience, and there can be no system of Christianity 
which does not provide for this personal experience toward the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 



SEPTEMBER. 397 



• SEPTEMBER 10 : EVENING. 

The disciple is not above bis master, nor tbe servant above bis lord. — Mat- 
thew x.,24. 

There is victory for each true Christian heart over its 
troubles. He whose crown of thorns is now more illustrious 
and radiant than precious stones could make a crown, says to 
every one of his disciples that have thorns piercing them, " My 
grace shall be sufficient for you." Is the disciple better than 
the Master ? Would you, if you could, reach forth your hand 
and take back one single sorrow, gloomy then, but gorgeous 
now, that made Christ to you what he is ? Is it not the power of 
Jesus in heaven, and to all eternity will it not be his glory, that 
he was the Sufferer, and that he bore suffering in such a way 
that he vanquished suffering? And is he not the Lord over 
all by reason of that ? ISTow you are his followers ; and will 
you follow Christ, and will you desire to be worthy of his lead- 
ership, and yet slink away from suffering ? Do not seek it ; but 
if it comes, remember that no sorrow comes but with his knowl- 
edge. If he does not draw the golden bow that sends the silver 
arrow to your heart, he knows it is sent, and sees it fall. You 
are never in trouble that he does not know it. Trouble brings 
you nearer to the heart of God than prayers or hymns. Sor- 
rows bring us closer to God than joys ; but sorrows, to be of 
use, must be borne, as Christ's were, victoriously, carrying with 
them to the heart intimations and sacred prophecies of hope, 
not only that we shall not be overborne by them, but that by 
them we shall be strengthened, and ennobled, and enlarged. 

It was no path of flowers, through this dark world of ours, 

Beloved of the Father, thou didst tread ; 
And shall we, in dismay, shrink from the narrow way 

When clouds and darkness are around it spread ? 
O thou, who art our life, he with us through the strife ; 

Was not thy head by earth's fierce tempest bowed ? 
Eaise thou our eyes above, to see a Father's love 

Beam, like the bow of promise, through the cloud. 



SEPTEMBER 11 : MORNING. 
The wrath of the Lamb. — Rev. yi., 16. 
Nothing seems to me so terrible as that part of Revelation 



308 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

where Christ is presented as the Lion of the tribe of Judah at 
the same time that he is the Lamb of God — where he is inter- 
changeably likened to the lamb, the most gentle and innocent 
thing on earth, and the lion, the most savage and ferocious 
beast of the field. What must be the terribleness of meeting 
such a God, whose love, that has fallen upon us, we have delib- 
erately rejected and set aside, shutting our hearts against it, 
and refusing to be softened by it ! "What must be the terrible- 
ness of meeting such a God, to whom we have deliberately said, 
" I will not have thee to reign over me !" Do not marvel that 
Christ says that those who despise and reject the love of God 
shall rise to everlasting shame and contempt. 

Beware how you treat the love of God. By as much as it is 
glorious to be loved, and, being loved, to be lifted up into all 
purity^by so much, will it be terrible if you are loved unfructi- 
fied and unsaved. 

God calling yet, and I not yet arising, 
So long his faithful, loving voice despising, 
So falsely his unwearied care repaying ; 
He calls me still, and still I am delaying. 



SEPTEMBER 11 : EVENING. 

To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness 
unto all men. — Titus Hi., 2. 

Whex I think of the way in which people, and even Chris- 
tian people, talk of each other, there is nothing that seems to 
me more horrible. There may be an innocent conversation — 
badinage, or something of that kind ; but I mean the low, the 
worse than unkind way in which we are accustomed to look at 
others, and pick flaws in their character, and criticise their dis- 
position, judging them in the lowest possible court of the mind. 
There is no remedy for this like praying for one another. If it 
is your habit to pray to God concerning your neighbors ; to 
think of their wickedness as that of immortal creatures ; to con- 
sider that they are journeying toward heaven like yourself, and 
that their faults are impediments in their way to be removed, 
and transgressions to be forgiven, and for the forgiveness of 
which you have plead with God — if you are in the habit, in 
other words, of dissecting those persons' history in the light of 



SEPTEMBER 399 

God's countenance, and striving to obtain God's forgiveness in 
their behalf, then, in the solemnity of such circumstances, you 
will sympathize, with them andv refrain from speaking of th^m 
in a damaging way. The habit of taking each other before 
God in prayer, familiarly and by name, is eminently beneficial. 
It will cleanse you. It will sweeten your disposition. It will 
take away from you every particle of the raven, that loves to 
feed on carrion. 



SEPTEMBER 12: MORNING. 
The fruit of the Spirit is love. — Gal. v., 22. 
He who has entered into the true spirit of love, and lives in 
it, and speaks of it, and sings in it, and works in it, is a Chris- 
tian ; but he who works, and sings, and speaks, and lives in any 
other spirit except that of love, is not a Christian. He has not 
reached the typical character which belongs to Christ's disci- 
ples. And just in proportion as this spirit grows in a man, he 
is growing in Christ. He is the truest Christian who is becom- 
ing the sweetest, the mildest, the easiest to be entreated, the 
gentlest. He who is overcoming the obliquities of his natural 
temper ; he who is working out, one after another, every part 
and element of his nature, so that he lives habitually in a Christ- 
like disposition, in a spirit of love, is the one that is growing in 
grace. 

SEPTEMBER 13 : EVENING. 
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the 
tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. — Rev. xxii., 14. 

"We are all sailing across the sea of life in different vessels. 
Some of them leak, some of them are slow, some of them are 
very fine and stately, some of them have cruel captains, and 
some of them have good captains ; but when once we get our 
feet on the shore of the New Jerusalem, we shall not care what 
took us over there, nor what our fear was on the way. 

See to it, then, that you reach the heavenly city ; see to it 
that God is your God ; see to it that you have a child's right. 
Of all the trumpets that you can lift up at the heavenly gate, 
there is but one that will let you in. Blow the trumpet, if you 



400 MOBNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

will, of your own good deeds, and there is not an angel in all 
the heaven that will know the sound. Speak through your 
pride, or through your vanity, and you will fail to summon a 
messeuger to the heavenly gate. But blow the trumpet of 
love, and its first lisping sound will quickly roll back the bolt, 
nad lift the latch, and open the heavenly gate, and you shall 
come in with a child's welcome, and find your Father's house, 
and your heart's delight. Learn this love, and rise to this 
home, through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. 



SEPTEMBER 13: MORNING. 
Praise ye the Lord : for it is good to sing praises unto our God ; for it is 
pleasant; and praise is comely. — Psalm cxlvii., 1. 

Oh that we could reason less about our troubles, and sing 
and praise more ! There are thousands of things that we wear 
as shackles which we might use as instruments with music in 
them, if we only knew how. Those men that ponder, and med- 
itate, and weigh the affairs of life, and study the mysterious de- 
velopments of God's providence, and marvel why they should 
be burdened, and thwarted, and hampered, how different and 
how much more joyful would be their life if, instead of forever 
indulging in self-revolving and inward thinking, they would 
take their experiences, day by day, and lift them up, and praise 
God for them. We can sing our cares away easier than we can 
reason them away. Sing in the morning. The birds are the 
earliest to sing, and birds are more without care than any thing 
else that I know of. Sing at evening. Singing is the last thing 
that robins do. When they have done their daily work ; when 
they have flown their last flight, and picked up their last mor- 
sel of food, and cleansed their bill on the napkin of a bough, 
then, on a topmost twig, they sing one song of praise. I know 
they sleep sweeter for it. They dream music ; for sometimes, 
in the night, they break forth in singing, and stop suddenly aft- 
er the first note, startled by their own voice. Oh that we might 
sing evening and morning, and let song touch song all the way 
through. 

The lark is in the sky, and his morning note is pouring : 
He hath a wing to fly, so he's soaring, Christian, soaring ; 



SEPTEMBER. 40 1 

His nest is on the ground, but only in the night, 

For he loves the matin-sound, and the highest heaven's height. 

Hark, Christian ! hark ! at heaven's door he sings, 

And be thou like the lark, with thy soaring spirit-wings. 



SEPTEMBER 13 : EVENING. 
Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ ? — 1 Cor. yi. , 1 5. 

Nothing is more certain than that ill health develops in some 
religiousness of the most enthusiastic kind, and in others tor- 
ments of doubt and dread. No mere moral remedies can ever 
reach such cases. Bodily health will bring soul-health under 
such circumstances, and nothing else will. Long and wasting- 
sickness; exquisite suffering; bereavements and losses; great 
exhaustion from continuous pressure of cares, from too great 
labors, from watching with the sick ; long, severe, and exhaust- 
ing study — in short, any cause which sucks the brain dry, and 
leaves it supersensitive, will be apt to induce a whole train of 
morbid moral symptoms, the only remedy for which is a resto- 
ration of health. 

I know men that are beset with temptations of the devil and' 
all manner of spiritual troubles, who, if I could send them to 
California by the overland route, would soon override the dev- 
il ; and, the moment their physical health was restored, they 
would find that all their spiritual troubles had vanished. I do 
not wish you to understand, however, that all spiritual difficul- 
ties come from this quarter ; this is only one class of them. Air, 
sunlight, recreation, wholesome food, sound sleep and enough 
of it, and exercise, will gradually reinstate the minds of those 
who have become prematurely exhausted and weakened. Then, 
and not till then, the conscience will begin with regular beat 
to swing its pendulum, and the mind and the soul will keep 
time with it. 



SEPTEMBER 14: MORNING. 

Thou compassest my path. — Psalm cxxxix. , 3. 

He that can look up into the heaven at midday, and dwell 

long, and yet return his thoughts whence they came, without 

once having felt that God was there — I pity him. He that can 

C c 



402 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

look into the darkness of the night, and come back again to the 
light of his own countenance, and not have found God there — 
I pity him. He that can sit down upon a bank on which the 
sun shines in the spring, and watch the roots, and young in- 
sects, and all that nature is doing there, and not have one sin- 
gle thought of God — I pity him. He that can hear the sounds 
of the night, the voices of the sea, or feel the stillness ; he that 
can look upon the face of a friend ; he that can witness a mar- 
riage feast, or stand in the marble presence of death ; he that 
can go any where, and not have the shadow of the eternal 
throne cast upon him — I pity him. He that has to hunt for 
his God, and shuts his God up in a closet, and keeps a lock and 
key on him, and goes there to find him — I pity him. My God 
is every where. 



SEPTEMBER 14 : EVENING. 

And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord 
be done. — Acts xxi., 14. 

When our Savior went with the apostles to Emmaus, he 
made as though he would go farther, but they entreated him 
to abide with them, and he then turned aside and spent the 
hours with them there. So God's providence often looks as 
though it would go on ; if you don't want it to go on, stop it. 
Love oftentimes says " No," in order that it may be made to 
say " Yes." In the dealing of God with you through the events 
of life, beware lest you submit too easily ; beware that you are 
not too forward with resignation ; beware that you do not give 
up your will too soon. It is a great thing to give up one's will, 
when it must be given up, nobly and thoroughly, but it is a 
great thing not to give it up until you are really compelled to 
do it. 

But, on the other hand, remember that no energy is blessed, 
no enterprise is divine, which does not carry in it, latent, the 
spirit of resignation and submission. In the day of battle, fight 
as though you were a lion ; in the day of defeat, yield. Perse- 
vere in your endeavor to the very last ; but the moment the 
event has transpired which settles the question, accept the will 
of God, and yield to it. 



SEPTEMBER 403 

"When obstacles and trials seem 

Like prison walls to be, 
I do the little I can do, 

And leave the rest to thee. 

And when it seems no chance or change 

From grief can set me free, 
Hope finds its strength in helplessness, 
, And gayly waits on thee. 

Ill that he blesses is our good, 

And unbless'd good is ill ; 
And all is right that seems most wrong 

If it be his sweet will. 



SEPTEMBER 15 : MORNING. 

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thy- 
self.— Luke x., 27. 

This love is to comprehend every part of the mind, and all 
the time. The expression love is equivalent to our idea of dom- 
inance. It does not mean that we are to be thinking about 
God all the time. Nobody thinks of any one thing all the 
time, nor can. To do that would be insanity, Not the moth- 
er, nor the lover, newest and least expert, does it. It is con- 
trary to our organization ; for the mind is not a monochord ; it 
is a complex instrument, and must alternate its states and ex- 
periences. What is meant is simply this : That the whole soul 
in free play, whatever part of itself it exerts, must be active in 
the spirit of benevolence — of love toward God, and of a true 
well-wishing toward men ; that a strong predominant love to 
God and man shall so pervade the soul that there can not be, 
in all the action of the mind, one feeling that will go contrary 
to that spirit. The reason must be a reason acting in the spirit 
of love; the conscience must be a conscience acting in the at- 
mosphere of love ; the taste must be a taste acting in the at- 
mosphere and spirit of love — love to God and love to man. 
The appetites and passions, and every other faculty of the 
mind, in all their power, or variety, or versatility, may act, 
but they will act as steeds that feel the one rein, which goes 
back to the hands of the one driver, whose name is Love. This 
it is to be under the perfect law of love. 



404 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



SEPTEMBER 15 : EVENING. 

A good name is better than precious ointment ; and the day of death than 
the day of one's birth. — Eccles. vii., 1. 

Dying is like the folding of the flower. It is a gentle wind 
dying away. It is a tide flowing out to the depths beyond. It 
is a taper going out. It is a spark extinguished. It is a silent 
bird at twilight shooting through the sky, half rosy-lit, to its 
nest. It is, therefore, not the fact itself, it must be the associa- 
tions, that make death terrible to men. Living is far more ter- 
rible in reality than dying. It is life that forges sins; that 
multiplies evils ; that foments pride ; that inflames vanity ; that 
excites the passions; that feeds the appetites ; that founds and 
builds habits; that establishes character, and, binding up the 
separate straws of action into one sheaf, hands it into the fu- 
ture, saying, " As ye have sowed, so shall ye reap." Yet life, 
which is the mischief-maker, is not at all feared. Death, that 
does no harm, and is only the revealer of life's work, is feared. 



SEPTEMBER 16 : MORNING. 

The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him. — Ezra viii., 22. 

There are critical experiences which befall every household, 
and they ought to become a part of the calendar of that house- 
hold. The birth of a child ; the death of a child ; the marriage- 
hour of a child ; the point at which a child is received into the 
visible body of the Lord Jesus Christ ; times of bankruptcy ; 
times of recovery from poverty ; times of sickness ; times of 
returning health— these are eminently significant. It is not 
enough to think of them as among the rubbish of mere secular 
happenings. They go back. They have vital bearings. They 
make us worse. They make us better. They lift us up. They 
crush us down. They are at work on our immortality. In 
heaven the threads of being will be traced all the way down 
to experiences here upon earth. As these things occur, it is 
wise for us to heed them, to study them, to set them apart 
from the ordinary flow of events, and to say in respect to 
them, " The Lord hath done this ;" or " The hand of the Lord 
is in this." 



SEPTEMBER. 40 5 



SEPTEMBER 16 : EVENING. 

For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and 
shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of 
the mountains. — Deut. xxxii., 22. 

When I think that God sits — oh how long ! — seeing every- 
day, as the great revolving wheel of human life turns before 
him, all the operations that take place in the thicket ; all the 
operations that take place in the open field; all that is done 
under crowns and under democracies ; all that happens in dun- 
geons ; all that transpires in the streets of commerce — when I 
think that he is cognizant of all the revolutions and scenes of 
blood which are carrying sorrow to so many of the helpless and 
innocent throughout the earth, and of all the other evils by 
which men every where are afflicted — when I think that he 
sees and knows these things, and when I at the same time re- 
member that he is the infinite and omnipotent God of the uni- 
verse,! do not wonder when I read that his anger burns to the 
lowest hell ; I only wonder that that anger is held back so long. 
It is God's great patience which calls forth my warmest admi- 
ration. It is that trait of his which, more than any other, ex- 
cites my wonder ; and I would crown him with everlasting 
chaplets of undying flowers, saying, " Thou, that art long-suf- 
fering and infinite in patience, shalt reign, God eternal." 

He undertook our souls' salvation, 

Our sad condition moved him so ; 
And came to us, from pure compassion, 

To raise us from our depths of woe. 
Oh wonderful, surpassing love, 
Which brought him to us from above. 

O Lord, of goodness so amazing 

Not one is worthy — no, not one ; 
We stand in shame and wonder gazing 

At the great things which thou hast done. 
Thy crowning grace and precious blood 
Have reconciled us with our God. 



SEPTEMBER 17 : MORNING. 
Know ye that the Lord he is God ; it is he that hath made us, and not we 
ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. — Psalm c.,3. 
There are many that are born to misfortune, trial, and 



406 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

trouble. They carry organized suffering with them. But 
that, for the most part, is not our lot. We are horn so that 
our whole life is strong and our body vigorous with various 
pleasure. The separate elements that go to constitute this 
gift of our organization are marvelous if we consider them in 
detail. If the eye could keep a journal of all the pleasure that 
it has brought to us ; if it could make a representation of what 
it is capable of yet bringing ; if the gift that God has conferred 
upon us in the eye could be adequately described, no tongue 
could measure our obligations. If the ear could give its amount 
of pleasures issued ; if all our senses — if the whole of our body 
could rise up and bear witness to God's goodness in its organi- 
zation, what a history, what a complex series of service would 
be exhibited from God to us ! What is the habit of our mind ? 
Do the gifts of God, that come to us through the body day by 
day, inspire us with a profound sense of obligation, of thanks- 
giving to God ? On the contrary, is not life, and health, and 
strength more frequently a reason of indifference ? The poor 
hump -backed cripple often thanks God; whereas the man 
whose free blood beats without pain, the man that carries his 
body so as scarcely to know that there is more than an animal 
nature in it, uses it for variety, for pleasure, for pride, for world- 
liness — rarely for devotion. 

SEPTEMBER 1? : EVENING. 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord ; 
neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.— John xiii., 16. 

As Christ was, so are all that are to be his. He did not 
walk a bright morning star all the way through the days of 
his life. He was not permitted to shine. He dawned on the 
world, went into eclipse, and emerged again from the grave. 
Death had woven his wreath and imposed upon his head its 
coronal. It was by suffering, by humiliation, by death, that he 
rose beyond the power of them all, and became a Prince, a 
Savior, and a Captain of salvation to those that follow after 
him. 

Into such a world as this come all his true disciples, and 
they come hearing him declare, " The servant is not above his 



SEPTEMBER. 40 7 

lord." If they have called the Master Beelzebub, will they call 
you any thing better ? If they pursued him ; if he was plied 
by temptations; if he was buffeted; if he was subjected to va- 
rious trials ; if he was called to go through his Gethsemane, 
and at last to bear his Calvary, will the disciples come into the 
world to bear nothing — no cross, no trial, no trouble ? Shall 
we go unbaptized with affliction through to the end, when 
Christ set the example of suffering, and said, " Take up your 
cross and follow me ?" 

Thou knowest, not alone as God, all-knowing ; 

As man, our mortal weakness thou hast proved ; 
On earth, with purest sympathies o'erflowing, 

O Savior, thou hast wept, and thou hast loved ! 
And love and sorrow still to thee may come, 
And find a hiding-place, a rest, a home. 

Therefore I come, thy gentle call obeying, 

And lay my sins and sorrows at thy feet, 
On everlasting strength my weakness staying, 

Clothed in thy robe of righteousness complete ; 
• Then rising and refreshed, I leave thy throne, 
And follow on to know as I am known. 



SEPTEMBER 18: MORNING. 
Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world can not receive, because it seeth 
him not, neither knoweth him ; but ye know him ; for he dwelleth with you, 
and shall be in you. — John xiv., 17. 

Experimental religion is not a delusion. I know, and ten 
thousand witnesses join me in the affirmation, that there is a 
distinctive experience of feeling and thought belonging to a 
Christian nature which results directly from the communion of 
our minds with God's mind. There is a state in which Christ 
seems a real Being ; in which he seems inexpressibly beautiful 
in all his attributes ; in which he presents himself, not merely 
as your Creator in the beginning, and your Judge in the end, 
but intermediately, and all the way through, your Lover, your 
Brother, your Friend, whose friendship was sealed in blood — 
your Redeemer, who comes to you bringing with him from the 
eternal world all that there is in the Infinite of self-denying 
love ; in which his true nature is so distinctly portrayed before 
you that you involuntarily exclaim, " This is my Lord and my 
God !" and in which you have the feeling, " My Christ is the 



408 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

universal providential Governor ; all things are given to him in 
heaven and upon earth ; the issues of my life are in his hands ; 
he loves me ; I am utterly his ; all that concerns me is of his 
ordering ; he will save me in life, and when I die he will receive 
me to dwell with him eternally in the heavens." 

SEPTEMBER 18: EVENING. 

And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. 
And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. — Mark iv., 39. 

Be heroic in your faith. If storms and darkness come, re- 
member that there is a Christ in every ship that sails the Lake 
of Gennesaret. We have a Christ in our ship ; and when he 
seems to be asleep, and fears begin to rise, speak to him, and he 
will take command not only of the ship, but of the troubled 
sea, and of the angry waves, and there shall be a calm. Living 
or dying, let us be the Lord's. It is base to ask permission to 
live by forfeiting the principles which alone dignify human life 
and human nature. It is glorious to live and fight the battles 
of the Lord, and win trophies of grace by overcoming the ad- 
versaries of our King ; and when, at last, you who suffer with 
your Lord shall rise through the periods of time to stand in his 
presence in heaven, he will crown you with victory there. And 
the memory of all that you have suffered, what will it be but 
as the drops of a storm when you look at it in reverse, and see 
but a rainbow. Our troubles, with the heavenly light shining 
upon them, will be bright and joyous. 



SEPTEMBER 19 : MORNING. 

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are hon- 
est, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things 
are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and 
if there be any praise, think of these things. — Phil, iv., 8. 

How many persons are there who are beautiful in temper? 
How many Christians are there who, under provocation, blos- 
som into beauty — that is, who have meekness ? How many 
persons are there who, in the midst of their gains, are humble — 
that is to say, have such a sense of that .which lies before them 



SEPTEMBER. 409 

that they are not puffed up; that they do not behave them- 
selves unseemly; that they do not think of themselves more 
highly than they ought to think? How many persons are 
there whose good nature is any thing more than the mere prod- 
uct of good health, so that when they are unwell they are cross, 
and when they are well they are good-natured? How many 
persons are there in whom there is any thing like disinterested 
benevolence ; who really like to do good, and who act benevo- 
lently without stopping to ask whether it is for their interest 
or not — who do not depend upon the poor crutch of self-inter- 
est to hold them up to their benevolence ? How many persons 
are there who sow not expecting to reap again ? How many 
persons are there who do kind and beneficent things from the 
love of doing them ? How is it with you ? Has your Chris- 
tian character strength enough to go alone ? Is it pure gold ? 
Are you in God's earthly choir, or does your life add discord to 
the sweet sounds of Christian experience in life ? Can you say 
with the apostle, " Our conversation" — that is, our citizenship, 
our life — " our conversation is," not shall be, " is in heaven." 



SEPTEMBER 19: EVENING. , 

If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. — 
Rom. viii.,17. 

This world is a place for apprenticeship. It is a shop in 
which the ore is taken and put into the furnace, and melted, 
and taken out, and put on the anvil, and hammered. It is fire 
and hammer, fire and hammer all the way through. This world 
is a magnificent place in which to forge instruments for future 
use, but it is a wretched place for any thing else. If you look 
to find in it perfection in institutions, in laws, in dispositions, in 
characters, in any thing, you will be disappointed. It is a place 
for beginning and carrying forward a work that is to be car- 
ried forward by suffering. " Whosoever doth not bear his cross 
and come after me can not be my disciple." Men are trying to 
take up the cross and follow Christ, and yet are murmuring be- 
cause the cross brings sorrow and suffering. Do you think that 
you can be a child of Christ and evade sorrow and suffering ? 
You must suffer with the Master if you are to reign with him. 



410 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Suffering is essential to human growth and human education. 
Think it not strange, then, when you come to your Calvary. 

Oh that my faithless soul, one great hour only, 
Would comprehend the Christian's perfect life, 

Despised with Jesus, sorrowful and lonely, 
Yet calmly looking upward in its strife ! 

For poverty and self-renunciation, 

The tutor yielded back a thousand-fold ; 
In the calm stillness of regeneration 

Cometh a joy we never knew of old. 



SEPTEMBER 20 : MORNING. 

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory 
of God.— 1 Cor. x., 31. 

You need not go out of your house, or shop, or profession to 
do good. Where you are, and in what you are doing, you are 
to do good. If you are a Christian, and suppose that you can 
do good only as you can get away from your home and house, 
you have a very false conception of what doing good is. You 
need not envy persons who have the privilege of going out of 
doors. That privilege may be withheld from you because God 
thinks he can glorify himself by your staying at home. Let no 
one believe that he is far from the gate of heaven who has the 
opportunities of the household. It is the best place in the 
world ; and I do not think that any woman, mother or sister, 
who spends her life at home ministering to the wants of the 
loved ones there, has any occasion to envy those who sit upon 
thrones and occupy positions of influence. It is a sublime 
sphere. To provide for the family; to prepare their clothes; 
to watch over the little ones ; to perform the duties which be- 
long to domestic life, and to do it patiently and humbly, for the 
sake of Christ and in the spirit of benevolence, is glorious. 

SEPTEMBER 20 : EVENING. 
And he, bearing his cross, went forth.— John xix., 17. 

Every true cross-bearer learns to carry his cross as if it were 
an ornament rather than a burden, and finds, after a time, that 
it carries him. It gives more strength to him than he gives to it. 



SEPTEMBER. 



411 



Yet how many persons there are who scarcely attempt to 
carry the cross ! It is thrown on them, and they sink down 
under it. And that they, when Christ comes to them to com- 
fort them, should not be comforted — that years should pass 
over their heads, and they should still be crushed and over- 
borne, is strange and culpable. What is there in this world 
that is worthy of such a sacrifice of manhood, especially in 
those who are called by such a Savior, and such a luminous 
example, and have round about them so many stimulating in- 
fluences ? Shall grief be forever a tyrant ? Shall sorrow for- 
ever usurp the attributes of the Almighty, and stand domineer- 
ing over men as if the name of God were Sorrow ? I marvel 
that there are not more victories. I marvel that there is not 
more glorying over the cross. I marvel that there are not 
more songs of victory sung ; for there is no joy greater than 
that of grief overcome. 

How shalt thou bear the cross, that now 

So dread a weight appears ? 
Keep quietly to God, and think 

Upon the eternal years. 

Bear gently, suffer like a child, 

Nor be ashamed of tears ; 
Kiss the sweet cross, and in thy heart 

Sing of the eternal years. 



SEPTEMBER 21 : MORNING. 

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.— John 
x\'ii.,23. 

Every where in the New Testament this one element stands 
forth — the personal identification of the human heart with the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

The forms of expression are as many and as rich as are the 
forms which vegetable life takes on in the tropics. All the 
occupations of life yield whatever they have in them which 
touches the heart, in phrases and figures, to bring out this idea. 
All the habits of higher love ; all the analogies of sustentation 
of life in the body ;' all civic, economic, juridical, domestic traits 
— these are borrowed to expand and enforce this idea, the su- 
premacy of allegiance and of love toward the Lord Jesus Christ. 



412 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

He is light, bread, water, wine, meat ; he is the vine, we being 
the branches ; he is the householder, the lawgiver, the shep- 
herd, the father, the friend, the lover; he is judge and leader; 
he is God over all, blessed forever. Whatever there is in day 
or in night that is sweet, and soothing, and nourishing to do- 
mestic love, is sanctified by being transferred to a higher func- 
tion and use in the illustration of this noble experience of the 
soul of each individual man with its head, Jesus Christ. This 
heart-allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ is to you the highest, 
the only true Christianity. 

SEPTEMBER 21 : EVENING. 
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from 
the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world. — Rev. iii., 10. 

Resolutions should not be hastily cast aside because they 
have been broken. If a man should start to carry water to 
wounded soldiers from a spring afar off, and if, owing to the 
inequalities of the road, he should spill the water on one side 
and on the other till one half of it was gone, what would you 
think of him if he should say, " I have spilt and spilt till it is 
half gone, and I won't have any of it," and then throw it down 
in a moment of vexation ? It would be very natural for a pas- 
sionate man, but how foolish and how inhuman it would be ! 
When he was just within hearing of feeble voices of men that 
cried for water, would it be any reason for throwing away 
what he had because it was less than he intended to bring? 

There are many persons who form resolutions and break 
them, and renew them and break them again and again, and 
at last say in vexation, " I will have no more of them ; it is of 
no use for me to resolve." A resolution which takes in the 
whole of a right life, though it be broken once, twice, thrice, or 
a hundred times, is still to be clung to, and renewed till the end. 



SEPTEMBER 22 : MORNING. 
I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy pre- 
cepts. — Psalm cxix.,63. 

One may travel all over the world and never be out of reach 
of his relations. If you go to every part of our own land, there 



SEPTEMBER. 4! 3 

are Christians there, and they are your brethren. If you go 
under other skies, there are Christians there, and they are your 
brethren. You will find Christians on every continent. Yea, 
if you go into other religions than your own, you will find 
Christians there. If you go from the Protestant family into 
the Catholic Church, you will find Christians there. Wherever 
you see individuals whom Christ has loved, and that are accept- 
ed of him, instantly you feel a brotherhood toward them. 

And the moment that feeling comes to any one, how from the 
j>resence of it all selfish feelings and all worldly resistances die 
away ! There is in the consciousness of union with Christ an 
established fellowship one with another, and there is in it an 
element that dissolves prejudices and takes away those repel- 
lences that separate men. 

Men that love Christ can not be far from me. If a man loves 
prayer, and loves Christ, and loves the Church, he and I must 
have a language that will make us brothers. It is a blessed 
thing to feel that you have, through the Lord Jesus Christ, 
kindred the world over, and that there is a principle of love 
and faith that is stronger even than blood-love and family con- 
nection. 

SEPTEMBER 22 : EVENING. 
But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to 
drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that 
I am baptized with? — Matt, xx., 22. 

It is possible for men to be educated into a love of God. It 
is possible for men to be educated into faith of the divine pres- 
ence. It is possible for men to be educated into that peace 
which passeth all understanding. It is possible for men to be 
educated into the power of rising above sorrow, so that they 
count it all joy when they fall into divers temptations and trials. 
These things are before men, and they can have them if they 
will pay the price at which they are held. But men are com- 
ing to God as the mother of Zebedee's children came to Christ, 
when she asked that her two sons might sit, the one on his 
right hand and the other on his left in his kingdom. And God 
is saying perpetually in his providence, "Are you able to drink 
of the cup that I shall drink of, and be baptized with the bap- 



414 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

tism that I am baptized with ?" If you can, then the crown 
may be yours. 

Lord, we know that we must ever 

Take our cross, and follow thee 
All along the narrow pathway, 

If we would thy glory see. 
Then, oh help us each to bear it, 

By thine own hard life of shame ; 
Let us suffer well and meekly, 

Let us glorify thy name. 



SEPTEMBER 23 : MORNING. 

For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall 
live. — Amos v., 4. 

Mex suppose that when we are born again by the Spirit of 
God, we are brought into a perfected state — a state so much 
more eminent than that out of which we came, that it may be 
called a miraculous translation; and that, instead of anticipa- 
ting sin, and weakness, and imperfection in himself, the Chris- 
tian ought to expect never to do any thing wrong. 

A child means to be educated ; and that purpose is not to be 
invalidated by the fact that his mother keeps him at home very 
often to do house-work, or that she permits him to go a visiting 
or playing, or that he plays truant and forgets his books, and 
looks after flies, and butterflies, and what not, and is full of 
whims and caprices — full of spirit to-day, and all deliquescence 
to-morrow — full of all manner of infirmities. He is a scholar, 
and is getting his education, notwithstanding all these hindran- 
ces. So a Christian is Christ's scholar, and is in Christ's school, 
and his heart is set on education, and his purpose is to learn ; 
but oh, with what lingerings, with what accidents, with what 
diversions to the right and to the left ! And yet, taking it 
year by year, his eye is on the one object which he has set out 
to attain, and he means that more than any thing else, and is 
following on after it. 

SEPTEMBER 23 : EVENING. 
God, my Maker, who giveth songs in the night. — Job xxxv., 10. 
How many there are who have gone through the fires of af- 



SEPTEMBER. 415 

fliction and trouble, and come out of them unscorched, saying, 
" Jesus has been faithful to his promise. I have suffered, but 
no more than was for my good. He has comforted and sus- 
tained me, and I am as happy now as a sweet little child in the 
arms of its mother." 

Oh, bear witness. These are precious things that you are 
concealing. Wear those jewels. Let men see what it is to be 
comforted in the midst of trials and troubles. 

I know how I feel myself. I am constantly called to funerals. 
Some mourn for whom I am sorry. Their rain is turned to ice. 
Grief is beautiful, as in winter ice-clad trees are beautiful when 
the sun shines upon them; but it is dangerous. Ice breaks 
many a branch; and so I see a great many persons bowed 
down and crushed by their afflictions. But now and then I 
meet one that sings in affliction, and then I thank God for my 
own sake, as well as for his. There is no such sweet singing 
as a song in the night. You recollect the story of the woman 
who, when her only child died, in rapture looked up, as with 
the face of an angel, and said, " I give you joy, my darling." 
That single sentence has gone with me years and years down 
through my life, quickening and comforting me. 



SEPTEMBER 24 : MORNING. 
I will make all my goodness pass before thee. — Exod. xxxiii., 19. 

"When- Moses said, " God, show me thy glory," God refused 
to show him his glory in the sense in which he thought of it — 
that is, with the scenic outflash of all creation, revealing angels 
trooping about the throne, and exhibiting all the manifestations 
of divine power. Moses thought to see wonderful visions, but 
God said, " I will show you my goodness.'''' It is as if God re- 
buked the false notion which Moses had, and, pointing to his 
goodness, said, " This is my glory." 

What is God's goodness ? " The Lord, the Lord God, merci- 
ful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and 
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and 
transgression, and sin." Although he brought up the end by 
saying, " And that will by no means clear the guilty," you see 



416 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

there was but one clause of that, while all the other branches 
and twigs of the sentence were of mercy and goodness. 

If God was permitted to be good to you all the time, he nev- 
er would be any thing else. He is severe only when you need 
severity. It is not for the sake of gratifying any desire to in- 
flict pain that he administers chastisement, but to fulfill the dec- 
laration, " Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth 
every son whom he receiveth." 



SEPTEMBER 24: EVENING. 
Ye are not under the law, but under grace. — Rom. vi., 14. 

Tiie moment a man rises into that higher state in which his 
life is suffused by love, and God pours his life down upon the 
soul, he does not think of law any more, or transgression any 
more ; he no more thinks about whether he is perfect or not. 
This last stage of Christian experience in this world is one in 
which Ave ai-e so swallowed up in the consciousness of God's 
goodness, and nearness, and sweetness, and love, that we do 
not think much about ourselves. Our life is in Christ. We 
are not all the time ferreting out transgressions, or looking at 
this or that wrong that we have done. If we fell into sin, Ave 
should be sinking down into that lower state where conscience 
would catch us, and then we should have condemnation. But 
so long as we are living in this state of liberty and higher de- 
velopment, though we are not joerfect (no man is perfect ; God 
meant man to be man in this world ; and no man is perfect so 
long as there is any thing to be added in his development) ; 
yet, so far as the law is concerned, it is dead to those who live 
by love. There it is, away down below, to catch them if they 
fall ; but if they keep up where they are it will not touch them. 



SEPTEMBER 25 : MORNING. 
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it ; for 
the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. — Rev. 
xxi., 23. 

To us here the glory of God shines as the sun shines in a 
cloudy day. Now it is hidden altogether; now a procession 



SEPTEMBER. 41 ^ 

of clouds pass over it, and there comes through them a fitful 
checkered light; and now it is disclosed to full view. But 
there is a place where the glory of God shall be an uninterrupt- 
ed stream, which shall be so clear, so apparent, that we shall 
live in the presence of it — that is to say, when we stand so as 
to see God as he is, there will not be a single thought nor a sin- 
gle emotion that shall not fill the soul with rapture ; there will 
not be a single emotion nor a single thought that shall not 
touch the soul as the hand of the musician touches the chord 
of the instrument ; there will not be a single thought nor a sin- 
gle emotion that shall not vibrate with admiring joy, for God 
is the centre of glory, and he acts on a pattern of grandeur in 
moral attributes such that to stand in his presence and see him 
is to be ceaselessly agitated and affected by the wonder of such 
a Being. We shall see him as he is, the God of glory, and our 
eye will be so strengthened that we can behold him and not die. 



SEPTEMBEB 25 : EVENING. 
Abide in me, and I in you.— John xv., 4. 

Theke are some who have found the King's palace, though 
they only walk before it, and do not see his royal presence. 
Some there are who sit in the garden, and have glimpses as he 
passes to and fro within. Some there are who stand upon the 
threshold and behold his comely presence, and yet do not go 
in. Some there are who stand within, and yet as servants. 
Some there are who are admitted to his presence, and hear him 
say, Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends. And some 
there are who abide with him, and he knoweth them. Thrice 
blessed are they. Oh that we were of their number ! Oh that 
we were within, and always within, and always hearing thee, 
and seeing thee, and loving thee, and rejoicing in thee, and re- 
joiced over ! for what can hurt those who are surrounded by 
thine arms ? What can pierce them, or reach to disturb their 
settled peace? All the earth might weep, but they are lifted 
in thy divine strength above sorrow. Yea, in sorrow is sweet- 
ness to them. They learn to suffer with rejoicings. How pre- 
cious are the revelations of thyself to those who have the secret 
of God! 

Dd 



418 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



SEPTEMBER 26 : MORNING. 

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son 
of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ. — Ephes. iv.,13. 

A true religion never is in the way of any thing which a 
man ought to desire. It undertakes to give a man more, in 
every way, than in his ignorance he could have had. It teach- 
es him restraint in one place only to enable him to reach forth 
to larger liberty in another. It undertakes to give a man the 
whole of himself. When a man would rob himself by taking 
undue liberties with one part, leaving all the other parts unoc- 
cupied, religion teaches him a higher and a better use of all his 
powers. It undertakes to give a man the most that can be har- 
moniously educed from every faculty of his nature, and there- 
fore refuses to let him overtax some, and underuse other parts 
of his being. Its very end is to give men salvation in the life 
to come, by making them better men in the life that now is. 
It seeks to make a man happier ; it seeks to give him liberty, 
and power, and superior quality in every faculty of his nature. 
When, therefore, men enter upon a Christian life in this large 
and generous method, God declares that such a course, while it 
secures, ultimately, the high ends of eternal salvation, shall also 
secure secular good. " Godliness is profitable unto all things, 
having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to 
come." Religion shall bless a man both in this life and in the 
life that is hereafter. 



SEPTEMBER 26: EVENING. 
He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. — Mai. iii., 3. 
Trouble, anxiety, forelooking, foreboding, anguish, bereave- 
ment, disappointed affection — these are only so many tools 
which God is employing by which to polish, and make fair and 
comely the qualities of your soul ; and by-and-by, out of this 
shop-work, out of this tribulation, you shall rise fair as the sun, 
glorious forever, and shining as the stars in the firmament of 
God. 



SEPTEMBER. 419 

Take courage, then. Do not look down and within. Wait 
for the hour of transfiguration. As from a mountain-top behold 
your hope, like Christ, whiter than snow ; and in that royal mo- 
ment look up and take your measure and conception of life from 
this highest and most radiant point, and then rejoice. 

Soon pride will have done its battle. Soon selfishness will 
have run out. Soon all disturbing passions will have lost their 
power. More and more time itself helps you to bring all the 
royal attributes of your soul into fullness and harmony, and 
soon death shall put the crown on your head, and then you shall 
be as beautiful as God — he being Father, and you children, and 
heaven the glorious land of beauty. 



SEPTEMBER 27 : MORNING. 

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way 
off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and 
kissed him. — Luke xv., 20. 

To those who have gone wrong, and who would retrace their 
steps, I would say, Your hope is in God more than in men. 
There is one Heart that is never weary of bearing with you. 
There is one Heart that will never cease to have compassion 
upon you so long as you* are in the land of mercy and hope, 
until you have passed that line beyond which there can be no 
compassion. There is one Heart that is filled with generous 
kindness toward every man who wants to repent. Whatever 
may be your transgression, whatever may be the obstacles that 
stand in the way of your reformation, whatever sympathy you 
may lack from the world, God is on your side, and will help you. 
Are there wistful hours when, out of the entanglements of evil, 
which, little by little, like rust and mildew, have collected upon 
you, there are lookings away and longings for something bet- 
ter ? The voice of God is calling you. The sound of your Fa- 
ther's voice is in your heart. Those very yearnings that you 
have are inspired of God, and they are meant to bring you out 
of your transgression. Heed them ; understand whence they 
come ; trust them, and trust God. Then that which you can 
not do in your own strength, and which men are not wise 



420 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

enough nor strong enough to help you to do, God will help you 
to do. Remember that he is on your side, and that he would 
rather heal than punish you. He does not desire that any man 
should die, but rather that all should turn and live. 

SEPTEMBER 27 : EVENING. 
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven ; for she 
loved much : but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. — Luke vii. ,47. 

I think I have learned more of the nature of my Master from 
my bad than from my good. We learn both ways. But it is 
the sense of God's graciousness that impresses me. When I am 
penetrated with a conviction of my un worthiness ; when my 
sins l(5ok like mountains to me; when my heart sinks within 
me, and there comes over the mountain, "dawning bright as the 
morning-star, the thought of Christ's full mercy and endless pa- 
tience ; when I have a sense of the great goodness of God as it 
is revealed, in urgent contrast with my own sense of inferiority 
— then it is that my conception of God is more glorious to me 
than any other experience. Out of all my deficiencies, out of 
my ten thousand blemishes, there rises up the view of a gentle 
God. He not only grants me forgiveness, but fills me with 
zeal and holy purpose. God grant that this view may be stron- 
ger and stronger till I go home, to return love for love ; till I 
stand in Zion and see God. Then temptation shall die forever 
from the light of his countenance ; then, when once I am there, 
there shall be no more selfishness, no more temptation, and no 
more fear, but perfect love, which casts both out. 

My sins, my sins, my Savior, 

They take such hold on me, 
I am not able to look up, 

Save only, Christ, to thee : 
In thee is all forgiveness, 

In thee abundant grace, 
My shadow and my sunshine 

The brightness of thy face. 

Therefore my songs, my Savior, 

E'en in this time of woe, 
Shall tell of all thy goodness 

To sinful man below — 
Thy goodness and thy favor, 

Whose presence from above 
Rejoice those hearts, my Savior, 

That live in thee and love. 



SEPTEMBER. 42 1 



SEPTEMBER 28 : MORNING. 
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. — Rom. xii., 21. 

A true Christian manhood has in it the elements of positive, 
overt power of goodness rather than the negative condition of 
the avoidance of evil. Christianity does not disdain fear, nor 
conscience, nor circumspection, nor watchfulness against evil. 
It enforces these things heartily and "often; but they are inci- 
dental. It relies mainly upon the direct energy of a man's fac- 
ulties in things that are good. It seeks not to repress life and 
keep down growth because abundance of being is more diffi- 
cult to restrain. Rather, it urges men to seek right things with 
such force, and with such persistence, that no strength shall be 
left for wrong ones. We are to overcome evil by doing good 
and by being good. There is not in Scripture any ground for 
that miserable heresy which teaches that vigorous, fruitful, en- 
terprising being should be restrained because there is some 
danger that so much of it may lead to overaction. That her- 
esy belongs to the weakness of men ; it has no characteristic 
element of the strength of God. 



SEPTEMBER 28 : EVENING. 

If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you ; if they have kept 
my saying, they will keep yours also. — John xv., 20. 

Do not be discouraged because any part of a Christian life 
seems to you so hard. It is God that worketh in you. Is the 
yoke very heavy ? He will carry it for you. Is the burden 
crushing ? He will raise it up. Is the way dark ? Christ is 
the way, and he will lead you in it. 

And it is but a little time that you will have the trial. Do 
not give up because you have begun a Christian life and found 
unexpected obstacles. Remember how the Master went step 
by step in his experience clear to the garden, when it seemed 
as though his troubles had so thickened upon him, as though 
he had been overtaken by such a weight of grief that he must 
needs go back. But what did he do ? He cried out in his an- 
guish, " O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from 



422 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

me." The next moment one would have expected to hear him 
say, " I can not drink it." But no : he said, " Nevertheless, not 
as I will, hut as thou wilt." And he triumphed in that mo- 
ment. 

If your cup seems too bitter, if your burden seems too heavy, 
be sure that it is the wounded hand that is holding the cup, 
and that it is he who carried the cross that is carrying the bur- 
den. Oh, dear Jesus, thy love is greater to us than ours is to 
each other. 

The way seems long, deal- Leader, and my feet 

Are weary, pressing oft these thorns ; 'twere sweet, 

Methinks, to rest ; this heavy cross remove ; 

Thou surely needst not thus my love to prove. 

" Rest not, weak heart, nor lay thy burden down : 

For earth's short rest, wouldst lose thy heavenly crown ?" 

Onward, dear Jesus : safely by thee led, 
"Faint, yet pursuing," still the path I'll tread ; 
Gird me with strength, then e'er my prayer shall be, 
"Father, e'en so it seemeth good to thee." 
"And as thy days thy strength shall ever be, 
While heaven's eternal glory waiteth thee." 



SEPTEMBER 29 : MOBNING. 
Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. — Matt, iv., 19. 

Our obligations to Christ for our own salvation, and the pos- 
session of Christ's spirit of sympathy and love — these are the 
grounds on which men ought to labor for the salvation of their 
fellow-men. Though parents, teachers, and ministers are ex- 
pected to labor on account of professional reasons, the root of 
the obligation is not that we are parents, or teachers, or minis- 
ters, but that we are Christians. 

It may be that some have better adaptations and better op- 
portunities than others. That may be a reason why some 
should do more than others, but it is not a reason why some 
should not do any thing. Every man has some power, and is 
under obligation to the Master to exert it. If you have ten 
talents, you are responsible for ten ; if you have five, you arc 
responsible for five ; and cursed be the man that, having but 
one, wraps it in a napkin, and digs a hole and buries it. If a 
professional man can do more than you, it does not justify you 
in not doing the little that you can do. The obligation is not 



SEPTEMBER. 423 

professional, but moral. To live days, and months, and years 
without personal solicitude and personal effort for some individ- 
ual soul is a sign so bad as to invalidate the evidence of piety. 
You must have somebody to love, and watch over, and sympa- 
thize with. Every single heart should have its part in this 
great, common, universal, individual, and personal duty of act- 
ing upon others for their religious growth, as God acted on 
you for yours. 

Men die in darkness at your side, 

Without a hope to cheer the tomb ; 
Take up the torch and wave it wide, 

The torch that lights time's thickest gloom. 

Toil on, faint not, keep watch, and pray ; 

Be wise the erring soul to win ; 
Go forth into the world's highway, 

Compel the wanderer to come in. 



SEPTEMBER 29 : EVENING. 

For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor 
them that are tempted. — Heb. ii.,18. 

There is no possible experience that is not easily, familiarly 
known in the presence of God in Christ Jesus. Every man 
who has been subject to the temptations which belong to de- 
ceit and dishonesty ; who has felt the fiery thrusts of the pas- 
sions; who has experienced the envies and jealousies which 
come in the attritions of society, or who has had great hopes 
turned to disappointment — every such man can go to Jesus 
and say, " Lord, thou hast not sinned ; but these feelings that 
are tried in me to the uttermost have been tried in thee ;" and 
the response from heaven would be, "In that I have been tempt- 
ed, I am able to succor those who are tempted." There is succor 
for every man who is tempted, no matter how low he may be. 
There are men who stand in the shadow of perdition ; men who 
say they are tempted of the devil ; men who, from the very be- 
ginning, count themselves unworthy of hope ; and yet no temp- 
tation befalls a man that is so low, or so gross, or so brutal, 
that he can not carry it into the presence of Christ and say, 
" O thou Tempted in All Points as I Am, help me ;" for that is 
his name — Tempted in All Points as J Am. 

Nothing is so exquisite in you, nothing so multitudinous, 



424 MOBNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

nothing so venomous and painful in the way of moral tempta- 
tions, that it has not had some part in the experience of Christ, 
so that it is interpreted to him perfectly. And every sigh, ev- 
ery groan, every aspiration, every thought, that will not even 
look up, but that, looking down, despairs — God knows them 
all, and knows them quick, for they bound, as it were, against 
his heart, bringiog up suggestions of trials experienced in his 
own person. 



SEPTEMBER 30 : MORNING. 
Praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. — Eph. vi., 18. 

Whoever draws near to God in the spirit of sincere, winning, 
loving, filial conversation, worships. This is prayer, this is com- 
munion, whatever may be the mode. Some pray by the lips 
of another ; some pray by their own lips ; some pray in silence, 
without uttered thoughts ; some pray at stated seasons ; some 
pray only in circumstances that inspire peculiar feeling ; some 
pray by written forms, and some without them. The range is 
large. The liberty is absolute. That which your experience 
teaches you to be best you have a right to. But one thing is 
to be common — we are to pray ; we are to abound in prayer. 

The want of devotion makes every effort at Christian life a 
burden. With devoutness, with the fiery elevations which come 
from devotions, with the realization of the great spiritual realm 
above us and around about us, a thousand things become easy. 
The heart that loves God and goes to him in prayer finds things 
to be light which others find to be heavy. Duties are no lon- 
ger duties, but they become volitions, and men do automatically 
what aforetime they did, if at all, imperfectly, by force. There 
can be no eminent development of Christian life without this. 
It is the breath of the soul. 

SEPTEMBER 30: EVENING. 
The ehiefest among ten thousand. — Sol. Song v., 10. 

Lsf each quality which makes the dearest names in human 
life, Christ so excels that he is infinitely above all others. We 
are not accustomed to weave into his name all those sweet, fa- 



OCTOBER. 425 

miliar attributes which we see in the household, or which we 
meet in a circle of friends ; and yet, in respect to every one of 
those qualities which go to make names that are dear to the 
heart, the Lord Jesus Christ is infinitely above them, infinitely 
superior to them in every thing. Christ is infinitely more in 
those very qualities which make a father dear to his children, 
or a neighbor noble to his neighbors, than any or all fathers or 
neighbors. All those indescribable and tender graces which 
make mother the queenly name in all the earth, Christ has in 
such abundance and perfectness, that a mother's heart by the 
side of his would be like a taper at midday. All that which the 
child yearns for while a child, and remembers with home-sick- 
ness afterward ; all those qualities that make men look back for 
their Paradise to their childhood, and make them feel, too often, 
that life is a wilderness, and their early homes the place of love, 
and joy, and sweet fruition, are not so dominant in father and 
mother as they are in Jesus. His name is above every name. 
He is more fatherly than fathers, and more motherly than moth- 
ers. He is more tender in love than any lover. Language is 
exhausted in the Bible to signify the inflections of divine ten- 
derness. 



OCTOBER 1 : MORNING. 

Thrust in thy sickle, and reap : for the time is come for thee to reap ; for 
the harvest of the earth is ripe. — Rev. xiv., 15. 

October is the opal month of the year. It is the month of 
glory, of ripeness. I love to think that when the summer, with 
all its fullness of innate beauty, has gone through its course, 
and is about to die, it knows how to break out with more gor- 
geous beauty, and die with more glory on its head than it had 
in its positive freshness and vernal beauty. And so it should be 
with Christians. They should be bright and beautiful through 
all their youthful life, and gorgeous as they grow old and are 
about to step into the kingdom of God's glory. Let us begin 
again, in this picture month, in this month of the revelation of 
God's glory in the outward world about us, to pray and work, 
with the hope that we shall rise by-and-by into that resplend- 
ent land from whence we shall go out no more forever. 



426 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



OCTOBER 1 : EVENING. 

"What are these which are arrayed in white robes ? and whence came they ? 
— Rev. vii.,13. 

Though, when you look upon that rejoicing throng, you see 
no face that you ever knew, that is your father. On earth he 
was an old man, bowed down and wrinkled with many a disas- 
ter. You remember how he appeared then. Now look into 
that sainted face, and you shall find no wrinkle. Every sign 
of the remembered weakness is gone, and gone forever. That 
is a child of affliction, whose woes on earth were a marvel. She 
seemed to have be«n set apart for suffering, as a rock on an 
ocean coast seems to be a mark toward which the waves are 
aimed. But look now at the fair celestial beauty of her coun- 
tenance. Hear her sweet flowing song. There is not one note 
nor indication of all that she suffered here below. 

Then suffer on. Be patient. Ask God to bless your trouble. 
Be more anxious for manhood than for happiness. When in 
trouble, be more anxious that God should bless that trouble 
than that he should take it away, and seek that it may prepare 
you, not so much for pleasanter places in this life as for those 
higher seats, and the saintly ceremonies and joys of Paradise. 



OCTOBER 2 : MORNING. 

But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice : let them ever shout 
for joy, because thou defendest them : let them also that love thy name be joy- 
ful in thee. — Psalm v., 1 1. 

There is a testimony of joy which we owe to the Savior, to 
ourselves, and to our fellow-men. The sweetness, the power, 
and the frequency of that joy which God sheds abroad in the 
converted soul ought to be made known. 

I am touched to think how little joy there is in the world. I 
am touched by the mute supplication of universal experience 
for some joy. The very wildness with which men rush after 
pleasure, the very remorselessness with which they seek first 
one thing and then another, is a silent testimony to the desert 
condition of their heart. Men know that there is such a thing 



OCTOBER. • 421 

as joy ; they long for it ; they seek it ; they strive after it ; but 
alas ! the experience of men is that there is comparatively little 
joy in this world. 

When, therefore, one says, " Christ has blessed my soul, and 
brought me into a sweet knowledge of himself, and at times I 
have joy unspeakable and full of glory," the knowledge thus 
conveyed that there is such a joyful state is most powerful to 
bring men into the Christian life, as it has been in the cases of 
multitudes in the past. And it is the duty of every man that 
is a joyful Christian to bear witness to the good that he has re- 
ceived at the hand of God. It is his duty to go into all his 
neighborhood, and, with suitable words and with proper discre- 
tion, to bear testimony to the joy-producing power of faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 



OCTOBER 2: EVENING. 

Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. — 
Psalm li.,2. 

Will you not say, "I am willing to-night to forswear the 
evil tendencies of my passions and appetites, and, by the grace 
of God, I am determined to do it ?" Have you been covetous ? 
Will you not to-night in your chamber, in the presence of God, 
make a solemn vow that you will break the idol of covetous- 
ness, and put in its place the God who made you ? Will you 
not say, "I mean to live for imperishable riches, and not for 
earthly wealth?" Have you been a man of fiery temper? Is 
it not time to make a resolution of reformation in this regard, 
and to seal it in the presence of God ? Is there no habit that 
you will yield up ? Is there no evil tendency that you will 
break away from ? Is there no sin that you have been rolling 
as a sweet morsel under your tongue which you will abandon ? 
Christ says, " If you give a cup of cold water in my name, you 
shall not lose your reward." Here is encouragement for you. 
You can not do the least good without receiving a remunera- 
tion therefor. Seek, then, to turn away from that which is evil, 
and cleave to that which is good, and go on advancing from 
Strength to strength till you stand in Zion and before God. 



428 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

OCTOBER 3: MORNING. 
Casting all your care upon him. — 1 Peter v., 7. 

Lay your burdens upon God, and he will take care of all 
your mistakes not only, but of all your wisdoms and of your 
successes. His nature is beneficent, and Christ says, "The very 
hairs of your head are all numbered." He says that not a spar- 
row falls to the ground without the Father's notice. He has 
called himself my Father, and he has told me to call him Fa- 
ther — and I will. He has told me that every thing is naked 
and open before him. He has told me that he is bringing me 
up through trouble and suffering for eternal life and immortal 
glory, and I believe it. All that is generous and manly in me, 
and all that in me which has aspiration for dignity and honor, 
makes me believe that I am being conducted through this great 
and strange world by an all-guiding Father for the sake of mak- 
ing me worthy to be his son in the kingdom of his glory. And 
I will have the benefit of that belief. I will bring my Father 
into each particular day, and say, " The providence of this day 
is. thine. Manage it as thou wilt. I do not seek to pry behind 
the philosophy and find out how it is. Sufficient is it that I 
may cry and thou wilt hear. It is enough that I may cast my 
burden on thee, and that thou wilt take care of me." It is 
enough that the voices of thousands of witnesses in every age 
have risen up and said, " We have cast our burdens and cares 
on the Lord, and he has sustained us." 

OCTOBER 3: EVENING. 

Oh wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death ? — Rom. vii., 24. 

Oh children of faithful parents ! Oh men who for years have 
lived to violate your own convictions ! Oh ye that have sub- 
mitted to the bondage of this world, and felt all the time that 
it was an ignominious bondage ! — are there none of you that, 
out of the prison-house, hold up your hands and cry for deliv- 
erance? Are there none who are in bondage to unworthy 
habits ? none that shake their chains and say, " "Who will de- 



OCTOBER. 



429 



liver us from this bondage?" none who look back upon the 
time that is spent and past ? none to whom sad feelings come 
sighing, as in autumn, when the leaves fall and the wind sighs 
through the fields and the forests ? Is there no autumnal feel- 
ing breathing over your soul to-night, and awaking yearnings 
and longings ? 

Let discordant creeds alone. Do not mind the quarrels of 
churches. Listen to your own inward want. Hear your own 
heart. Believe the testimony of your own conscience. Give 
heed to your own reason. Yea, hearken to the voice of the 
Savior passing by. 

Come to Jesus ! Are you lonely ? 

Solace sweet he will afford ; 
Lean on Jesus — Jesus only : 

Come, and find a loving Lord. 

He is waiting — will you have him 

Pleading at your heart in vain ? 
He is willing — oh believe him ! 

He may never call again. 

Come, oh come this day, and try it — 

Jesus' words are proved and true ; 
Take his gift ; you can not buy it — 

He hath waited long for you. 



OCTOBER 4: MORNING. 
Wash ye : make you clean. — Isaiah i., 16. 

There is nothing that is wrong in the human soul that can 
not be put right. And you have the power to put it right, 
provided you are clothed with the Spirit from above ; provided 
you take into your hands, the implements that come from the 
armory of God. There is power in the Lord Jesus Christ for 
a perfect victory over the flesh, the appetites, and the passions, 
and to bring you into the supremest triumph of the spiritual 
life. 

Let no man, then, coddle his faults and say, "I was made as 
I am, and it is not possible for me to be an eminent Christian." 
That is another question — how far it is possible for you to be 
an eminent Christian, in the sense of experiencing original 
thoughts and feelings, and bearing into the world a new tide 
of ideas ; but in so far as the rectification of your own nature 



430 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

is concerned, God has given you power to govern yourself. 
Hard as it may be to transplant the tree of your soul, difficult 
as it is to sever the roots that hold it down, the Master says 
"there is power to do it." However many faults you may 
have, that branch their roots out in every direction, and diffi- 
cult as it is to transplant them by the ordinary instrumentali- 
ties, nevertheless faith in the soul will give you power to pluck 
them up by the roots and cast them from you, or transplant 
them to better soil, where they will grow to a better purpose. 



OCTOBER 4: EVENING. 
He that eateth me, even he shall live by me. — John vi., 57. 

Our inarticulate yearnings, the longings which come we 
know not whence, and point we know not whither, until by the 
Holy Spirit we were enlightened ; the prayers uttered through 
us by the Spirit ; the groanings for us which can not be utter- 
ed — all these teach us of God's work and of his wonderful way 
toward men. What we are we know not. If we look forth 
into the boiling tumult of human life to behold what man is, 
measured by time, how poor a thing is he ! But there is some- 
thing more to man than that which is revealed here. This is 
but the first summer, and not the blossom-bearing summer. 
There is another life ; there is a higher realm ; there are other 
developments. God has reserved him for a higher sphere, and 
all the outgoings toward him of the divine nature interpret him 
to be of a stature worthy to be called a son of God. It is in 
the fact that we carry the germ of immortality, and that we 
are to rise far above the power of sublunary things, and stand 
redeemed from every trace and taint of sin and weakness — it is 
in this that we have joy, and it is in this that we glory. It is 
the beyond that we long for ; it is the right to be ourselves in 
all the largeness of a true and royal nature ; it is that we may 
become like unto God ; it is the hope of that blessed society in 
heaven which makes life tolerable ; and we rejoice that we are 
not left dimly to guess, that our pulse is not left to beat feebly 
with expectation. Christ has spoken it, and the words have 
come to our ears and to our hearts, and we believe it — " Be- 
cause I live, ye shall live also." 



OCTOBER. 431 

OCTOBER 5: MORNING. 
Take ye heed, watch and pray. — Mark xiii., 33. 

Peatee is to be joined with vigilance. When fleets near 
the coast at night they give and receive signals. It is not 
enough that light-houses warn them of danger, so they throw 
up rockets as signals, to be answered by other signals from the 
land. I think these signals are much like our prayers and the 
answers to them which we receive. God has set light-houses 
all through the Bible ; but we want something more than these, 
so he permits us to throw up rockets of desire, and he signals 
back to us. 

Therefore watch and pray ; watch as those who are talking 
with God ; watch as those who have felt the affinity of God's 
soul with theirs, and are living as in the presence of the Invisi- 
ble One. Then watching will become easy, and then it will be- 
come potent. 

The time is short ; the days make haste. "Watch, for it will 
be but a few days before you will put your foot upon the shore 
of the eternal world, when you will see the height and depth, 
the length and breadth of that treasure which awaits you there, 
and when all the tears, and the strifes, and the watchings of 
earth will seem to you as the meanest price to pay for such end- 
less dignity and glory. 

OCTOBER 5: EVENING. 

But thou, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, 
godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. — 1 Tim. vi., 11. 

God will never receive us upon any invoice sent from this 
world. Every man is to be reappraised, unpacked, examined, 
mostly thrown away ; and that which is least esteemed here 
will be measured and judged as the best and the highest, so 
that the last shall be first, and the first shall be last. The ten 
thousand who go without a procession to the grave, whom no 
man knows to have died, and no man misses, have their proces- 
sion on the other side, and armies in triumph shout them home ; 
while men who are followed to the grave by a long procession, 



432 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

who are buried with much state, and who fill the world for a 
time with the sound of their fall, are received on the other side 
silently and without procession; and happy is it for them if 
they do not rise to shame and everlasting contempt. 

Your honors here may serve you for a time, as it were for an 
hour, but they will be of no use to you beyond this world. No- 
body will have heard a word of your honors in the other life. 
Your glory, your shame, your ambitions, and all the treasures 
for which you push hard and sacrifice much, will be like wreaths 
of smoke ; for these things, which you mostly seek, and for which 
you spend your life, only tarry with you while you are on this 
side of the flood. 

Only, then, that which happens to a man's inward nature, 
that which goes to form his habits, and so becomes his charac- 
ter — only that goes forth. The intellect and its habits; the 
affections and their habits ; the moral sentiments and their 
habits — these, and only these, will go forth. " For we brought 
nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing 
out." 



OCTOBER 6 : MORNING. 
Be patient toward all men. — 1 Thess. v., 14. 

Men's conduct may be wicked; it may be against moral 
character ; it may be such that your whole moral sense revolts 
against it ; but you are to remember that behind the wicked- 
ness there is a human heart ; a susceptible throbbing nature ; a 
spark of the divine Being ; an immortal spirit. You can not 
hate wickedness too much, but you are never to hate wicked- 
ness so much as to forget that the actor and the doer is a suf- 
fering creature before God, destined in his providence to judg- 
ment and eternity. And you are to remember what of God 
and what of immortality is in every living man. 

Consider, also, that it is by this very patience on God's part 
that we ourselves are saved. Do you suppose that any man 
on this earth, judged by our moral sense, is as bad to us as we, 
judged by God's moral sense, are to him ? Do not you suppose 
that if God takes his pure truth, and by it measures truth in 
us, we seem ten thousand times falser to him than the basest 



OUTQBER. 433 

man on earth seems to us ? Do not you suppose that if God 
judges us in the matter of kindness by his own generosity of 
love, he sees us farther down' on the scale than it is possible for 
us to see any man on the scale below us ? Yet God bears with 
us. And if you refuse to bear with men because they are so 
vile, what if God dealt with you in the same way ? You would 
be instantly burned up with the divine indignation. Not one 
of us could endure. 

Breathe thoughts of pity o'er a brother's fall, 

But dwell not with stern anger on his fault : 
The grace of God alone holds thee, holds all ; 

Were that withdrawn, thou too would'st swerve and halt. 



OCTOBER 6: EVENING. 
But let every man take heed how he buildeth. — 1 Cor. iii., 10. 
"We are all of us architects, or, rather, we are laborers togeth- 
er with God as the great Architect. We are building up the 
soul into character. The building which we construct is, to 
be sure, not visible, for it is the soul. It is not formless, how- 
ever, because it is invisible, but real and substantial — only with 
a finer substance than the senses can perceive. And a won- 
drous pile it is of many parts and eternal uses. Like Solomon's 
Temple, it goes up without sound of hammer or toil. No solid 
granite, no glistening marble, but thoughts, feelings, purposes 
are its materials. Out of these thin and evanescent things we 
are building a structure that shall outlive the mountains, the 
globe, and time itself. Day by day the courses go up, tier 
upon tier, story above story. A thousand ready workmen are 
our feelings and faculties, building, building, forever building. 
Only when we sleep is there cessation. At all other times the 
noiseless work goes on. Foundations are laid, materials are 
coming in of every kind from every quarter. And so year by 
year we build. Oh that we could stand afar off and see what 
we build ! But no, the soul is built in silence ; invisible, it yet 
abides like adamantine. 

Oh glorious process ! See the proud 
Grow lowly, gentle, meek : 



of unaccustomed tears 
Gush down the hardened cheek. 
Perchance the hammer's heavy stroke 
O'erthrew some idol fond ; 
Ee 



434 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Perchance the chisel rent in twain 
Some precious, tender bond. 

Ye looked on one, a well-wrought stone, 

A saint of God matured ; 
What chiselings that heart had felt ! 

What chastening strokes endured ! 
But marked ye not that last soft touch— 

What perfect grace it gave, 
Ere Jesus bore his servant home 

Across the darksome grave ? — 

Home to the place his grace designed 

That chosen soul to fill, 
In the bright temple of the saved, 

Upon his holy hill — 
Home to the noiselessness, the peace 

Of those sweet shrines above, 
Whose stones shall never be displaced — 

Set in redeeming love. 



OCTOBER 7 : MORNING. 
Lovo is the fulfilling of the law. -^-Rom. xiii., 10. 

Christian love is that condition of the sonl in which it takes 
hold of every thing with a spirit of sympathy, and kindness, 
and yearning. It is that spirit which makes the sonl hunger 
for the happiness of others. It is that development of the heart 
which makes us Godlike. 

Christian love, then, is to be the disposition. It is not to be 
the sweetmeat and confection ; it is to be the bread. It is not 
to be a disposition which, once in a great while, going to the 
cabinet where it is kept, you shall take out of the casket, allow- 
ing it to shine and emit all its precious rays. It is to be a dis- 
position that is to be worn as your eyes are worn, to be pos- 
sessed as your heart is possessed. It is to be, not an occasional 
experience, but an orbed disposition that, though it changes by 
revolving, never leaves its orbit. This love is to be to the soul 
what summer is to the eai-th — not a passing gleam, but an abid- 
ing state, which broods in the air, penetrates the soil, and draws 
forth and nourishes all the growths of earth or air. 

OCTOBER 7: EVENING. 
He careth for you. — 1 Peter v., 7. 
Blessed be God that he has a care for us all, and that he is, 



OCTOBER. 435 

for his own love's sake, doing for us what the mother does for 
her unconscious babe. In the bosom of God we are having an 
experience, the meaning of which the day of revelation will 
show us when we shall stand in heaven. Then we shall see 
that we have not shed a tear too many; that we have not 
borne a stripe that was too severe; that we have not had a 
blow that was not needed. 

Are there any that are discouraged, and that are on the 
point of giving up ? Gird up your loins and try once more. 
Do you sometimes think that no one was ever placed in such 
a situation as yours ? The living God is by your side, and he 
will not leave you nor forsake you. Having made a profession 
of religion, and fearing that you are not children of God, are 
you sometimes almost ready to renounce your stand, and go 
into the world and do as you list ? Oh, throw not away the 
hope that is in you. There is great reward in it. Are you 
sometimes led almost to doubt whether there is any reality in 
religion at all ? Seize again with holy faith upon the eternal 
verities of God's word. Hold fast to your hope with courage, 
and God will bring you through. 



OCTOBER 8:' MORNING. 
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ minis- 
tered by us, written not with ink, but with tbe Spirit of the living God ; not 
in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. — 2 Cor. iii., 3. 

You are the Bible which worldly men read. Men think more' 
of what the Bible teaches from you than from the word of the 
text ; and your conduct, whatever it may be, they are apt to 
ascribe, in the main, to religion. The Church is God's inter- 
preter and commentator of the Bible. 

What a position, then, does a Christian man occupy ! See 
how you stand related to those that God makes the first ob- 
jects of your care — your children. You can not help exerting 
an influence for good or for evil over them. During the first 
twelve or fifteen years of a child's life, father and mother are 
like God to it. The things you do are the model after which 
your children pattern. You are, by your words, your deeds, 
and the flow of your conduct, the interpretation of the Bible 



436 MOBNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

in your own houses. Your whole life is a silent teaching and 
preaching to those around you. How important it is, then, 
that you should be clothed with Christ for their sakes, who are 
dearer to you than your own life, as well as for the sake of all 
others in the world who look to you for an example. We are 
to he clothed with Christ, and to stand in- his place teaching 
worldly men what is right by our lives. If, instead of that, 
they are led to see that they are better without religion than 
we are with it, how disastrous will be our influence upon them 
and upon the cause of truth ! 

In your own family, in the circle of your business, where your 
motives are scrutinized, wherever you go, is your influence that 
of a true Christian, and your conduct such that men recognize 
in you the spirit of Christ ? 



OCTOBER 8: EVENING. 
I will not let thee go except thou bless me. — Gen. xxxii., 2C. 

There is many a man with whom this mysterious messenger 
of God wrestles ; and if he be in earnest ; if he will not let 
God's Spirit go except he bless him ; if he feels that his life is 
in the struggle, and he will be blessed of God, there is no man 
so wicked but that he may become pure, and his flesh return to 
him again like the flesh of a little child. 

If there are any who feel as though others might improve 
and turn back, but as though it were too late for them ; as 
though they had gone too far; as though they had become too 
old ; as though their habits had become too fixed — as- far as 
your own will is concerned, it may be true that you would nev- 
er be able of yourself to turn to God. But there is a provision 
in God's bounty by which, by his grace and by his power, you 
may be cleansed, you may be set free from evil thoughts and 
imaginations, and your passions may be restrained. A new 
heart God can give you, and from thence shall issue life, and 

life eternal. 

Come, O thou Traveler unknown, 

Whom still I hold, but can not see, 
My company before is gone, 

And I am left alone with thee : 
With thee all night I mean to stay, 
And wrestle till the break of day. 



OCTOBER. 437 

Yield to me now, for I am weak, 

But confident in self-despair ; 
Speak to my heart, in blessings speak ; 

Be conquered by my instant prayer — 
Speak, or thou never hence shalt move, 
And tell me if thy name be Love. 

My prayer hath power with God ; the grace 

Unspeakable I now receive ; 
Through faith I see thee face to face — 

I see thee face to face, and live : 
In vain I have not wept and strove ; 
Thy nature and thy name is Love. 



OCTOBER 9 : MORNING. 
If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand ? But there 
is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. — Psalm cxxx., 3, 4. 

"When one comes under the conscious influence of the divine 
Spirit, the soul lifts itself up with unwonted clearness, faith, 
joy, trust, effluence, and liberty. What a bird was when it lay 
in its little round nest, an egg, compared with what it is when 
it sings in the dewy morning near heaven's gate, such is the 
soul by nature compared with what it is in the joy of sweet 
and loving intercourse with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
It is a life which comes to some by flashes. It is a life which 
comes to some by blessed dreams. There is a kind of spiritual 
haze which seems to befall some men, as there is an Indian sum- 
mer which befalls the year ; but there is also a true life. It is 
possible for the human soul to live in abundance, and freedom, 
and blessedness, so that it shall be forever at rest and at peace. 
Does it not sing ? Yes. Is it perfect ? No, no. There is no 
perfection without full growth. Does it keep the law ? It may, 
or it may not. Yet the grace of God is so abounding, and the 
nature of divine love such, that when once the whole of a man's 
life is directed upward toward the bosom of God, minor discords 
are not noted. The soul's life with God is like the child's life 
with the mother. She pours over the child such a flood of love 
that, though its life is not perfect, though its whole being is 
imperfect, yet through sympathy, and kindness, and forgive- 
ness, she accepts it. So the soul rises into such a communion 
with God that though, in its relations to time and space, it 
may be subject to a thousand imperfections and discords, yet 



438 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

those imperfections and discords are overlooked and excused by 
God's great love. 

OCTOBER 9: EVENING. 
There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept 
for the owners thereof to their hurt. — Eccles. v., 13. 

Many men think they have ravaged the world ; but the world 
has ravaged them. Many men think they have led honor cap- 
tive ; but they have dishonored and disgraced their essential 
manhood. Many men think they have built a great Babylon ; 
but God beholds how, after all, they are as beasts, on whom 
feathers or hair doth grow, and has sent them to browse as 
beasts upon the very ground. It is a base thing for a man to 
be put into God's workshop, which was set up on purpose to 
make men, and come out on the other side without a single at- 
tribute of manhood. 

Ah, such wastes as there are ! For a man to walk through 
cities and towns, and see what becomes of manhood, is enough 
to turn his head into a fountain of tears. It is enough to see 
the wastes of antiquity — the battered statues ; the toppled- 
down columns ; the fractured walls ; the ruins of the Parthe- 
non. It is a sad experience, mingling both pain and gladness. 
But of all the destructions that have gone on in this world, and 
that are now going on every day in the great cities, which are 
grinding and crushing out manhood, the destruction of men is 
the saddest. Men are as clusters in the vine-vat, and the feet 
of temptation tread them down as the vintner's feet tread the 
clusters, and blood flows out as wine. And yet this is a world 
that was made on purpose to make men better ; to grind them 
to shape ; to sharpen them ; to temper them. Woe be to the 
man that is burned, or that is crushed, and that comes out 
worthless, and goes into the rubbish-heap of the universe ! 



OCTOBER 10 : MORNING. 
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; 
and he that loveth me shall he loved of my Father, and I will love him, and 
will manifest myself to him. — John xiv., 21. 

Many think that they are generous because when an object 



OCTOBER. 439 

of charity is presented to them they respond to it liberally. It 
is not so. You must carry the spirit of generosity with you all 
the time, or else you are not generous. Many think themselves 
to he good because they are susceptible of being made to feel 
good. It is not, however, being able to feel good, but knowing 
how to reduce good feeling to a practical form in every-clay life, 
that makes a man good. Many think that they are Christians 
because, when Christ is set before them, crowned with glory, 
their soid rises up and says, " Thou art my Lord and my Savior." 
They forget him the moment the door is between them and the 
speaker, and their conscience ought then to say to them, " Are 
you a Christian, you that care for Christ only when he is held 
up before your mind so as to excite in you pleasurable feelings 
— you that never think of him except when your thoughts are 
directed to him by some external influence, and that never car- 
ry him into your life?" 

On the other hand, there are hundreds that spend their whole 
time in endeavoring to please God by following the things that 
are right, and just, and true ; who, because they hardly ever 
mount up into the ecstatic feelings that others experience, ask, 
doubtingly, " Am I a Christian ?" Yes, they are ten times as 
much Christians as they would be if they had these feelings 
without the practical life of holiness which they are living. If 
you can not have both the feelings and the life, take the life. 
Rather than high feelings, that are like strong winds and fresh- 
ets, and that come with rending and exhaustion, choose low- 
toned feelings, that are like the gentle and wide-spreading dew, 
and that carry nourishment, and tend to fruit-bearing. 



OCTOBEB 10: EVENING. 

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall 
he not with him also freely give us all things 1—Bom. viii.,32. 

What must be the value of any thing desired when the price 
you are willing to pay for it is one of your children ! What 
personal pain in watching, in care, in patience, are not parents 
willing to undergo for the sake of their children, rather than 
that those children shall be given up to any trouble ? What 
abundant trouble does the eager parent take upon himself to 



440 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

shield the child ? What ease, what prospects in life has the 
parent gladly given up for the sake of the well-being of his 
child ? How easily would one sacrifice his property — the whole 
of it, if need he — rather than that his beloved child should suf- 
fer ! How many a one would say, as David said, " Would to 
God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son !" The 
tenderness of the record may be rare, but the experience is 
common. When, then, an emergency comes in which a parent 
consents to give up even a child, what an unspeakable testi- 
mony is that to the strength of his feeling ! There is no other 
thing in human life that can measure feeling like such an in- 
stance as this. 

Now that is the image which God sends to kindle in our 
heart and imagination some faint conception of what was the 
power, the depth, the omnipotence of his feeling of love toward 
the whole race of men. Consider what must be the heart of 
God, in whom there exists such a feeling of desire and love that 
it puts into a subordinate place his love for his own darling 
Son ! What must be that emotion which rises higher than our 
love for our own offspring ! And transferring that idea to God, 
considering what is the might and majesty of every feeling in 
God over the slender experience of the human heart, consider- 
ing what is the wonder of increase in every emotion in God 
when compared with the corresponding emotions in us, what 
must have been the length, and breadth, and height, and depth 
of the love of God to human souls ! This is that which the 
apostle holds up before us in the question, "He that spared not 
his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not 
with him also freely give us all things ?" 

O love of God, bow deep and great ! 
Far deeper than man's deepest hate ; 
Self-fed, self-kindled like the light, 
Changeless, eternal, infinite. 

We read thee best in him who came 
To bear for us the cross of shame ; 
Sent by the Father from on high 
Our life to live, our death to die. 

O love of God, our shield and stay 
Through all the perils of our way ; 
Eternal love ! in thee we rest, 
Forever safe, forever bless'd. 



OCTOBER. 44i 



OCTOBER 11: MORNING}. 
And the Spirit and the hride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, 
Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take 
the water of life freely. — Rev. xxii., 17. 

Ye that feel tlie motions of sin, ye that yet throb with in- 
temperate passions, here is that Savior who had to do with 
such as you, and will have pity on you. Ye that stumble in 
darkness, here is that light of the world which shines without 
quenching and without mutable ray. Ye. that are burdened 
beyond what ye know to bear ; ye who carry -the dead in your 
very heart, and may not tell your anguish ; ye that suffer an 
inward crucifixion as enduring as life itself; ye that may not 
sleep for the voice within that cries like a child, and can find 
none to trust ; ye that sit in the dust out of which you thought 
you would rake gold, and in which you find only dross ; ye that 
are as one that eats and is not fed, and drinks and is not quenched 
in thirst ; all ye that in various ways of life are hampered, and 
troubled, and vexed, behold the Deliverer, your Christ and my 
Christ, who came and gave himself for us, and lives now to give 
himself daily for us again. Come all who know sin and want 
relief; all who know sorrow and want consolation; all who 
know what bondage is and want a Deliverer, come and take 
Christ to be the bread of your life and the strength of your life. 

OCTOBER 11: EVENING. 
In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. — Isaiah lxiii., 9. 

Foe those who have done wrong to any degree, there is yet 
a place in God's heart. For those who have sought to break 
away from wrong and met with the poorest success, there is a 
place of mercy and pity .with God. For those who have tried 
to reform — not once, but twice, and thrice, and many times, and 
broken solemn resolutions and obligations — there is divine le- 
niency. For those who have given God occasion to draw his 
sword of judgment and smite them asunder, there is hope of 
salvation if only they are willing to be subdued and led by the 
infinitude of divine goodness. If they love sin and mean to sin, 
there is no arace for them: but if, sinninar, their heart abhors 



442 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

sin, and if, in their better moments, they abjure it, and, like the 
apostle, they cry out, "Who shall deliver me from the body of 
this death?" there is grace for them. For all those who will 
repent, there is room for repentance, and help for repentance, 
and succor during reformation. 



OCTOBER 12: MORNING. 

And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the 
Lord ; because he is good, for his mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And 
all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because 
the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. — Ezra iii., 11. 

Blessed be God for hymns ! Hymns are songs of the soul. 
And any man that wants to chord any state of mind can do so 
if he is familiar with the hymn-book, for the hymns that it con- 
tains are representations of real experiences in others, and we 
find that representations of experiences which came from a re- 
ality in others are apt to touch a corresponding reality in us. 
As for myself, I count the singing of hymns as being among 
the most eminent ways in which the soul can be brought into 
the conscious presence of Christ at its own sweet will. The 
shepherds heard the angels singing in the sky. Soon, however, 
the angels left them, and they heard them no more. But we 
have a sky in which the angels sing, and we can hear them 
when we choose. The songs of saints are angel-voices to us. 



OCTOBER 12: EVENING. 
He hath given us of his Spirit. — iJohn iv., 13. 

Every man must be a worker with God for his own salva- 
tion ; but no unaided intelligence, no power of the soul exerted 
merely by yourself, will be sufficient for you. Unless God by 
the Holy Ghost works in you, you will come short of that very 
vivific influence which is the peculiar test and characteristic of 
the Christian. But God's spirit is loving and gentle, persuasive 
and universal. It is distilled upon you as the dews of the night 
upon the blossoms. It overhangs the earth as the sun over- 
hangs this continent. God knocks at the doors of your heart, 
of your cpnscience, and of your understanding ; thrice ten thou- 



OCTOBER. 443 

sand times you have resisted him; you have turned away. 
Open now your heart ; for, although you can not, without the 
Spirit of God, be a Christian, yet you can not turn your heart 
toward God with even the sigh of a wish but instantly the Spir- 
it of God is with you. " The bruised reed will he not break, 
and the smoking flax will he not quench, until he brings forth 
judgment unto victory." 

In the silent midnight watches, 

List thy bosom-door ; 
How it knocketh, knocketh, knocketh, 

Knocketh evermore ! 
Say not 'tis thy pulse's beating — 

Tis thy heart of sin ; 
"lis thy Savior stands entreating, 

' ' Rise and let me in. " 



OCTOBER 13: MORNING. 

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every 
branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. — 
John xv., 2. 

Blessed are they that fly so high that no fowler can snare 
them, and no archer can strike them. Blessed are they whose 
life is in the soul. And when they part from this world, and 
rise to the other, how glorious will be the entrance there to 
those who have been forged on the anvil of affliction and well 
shaped — who have be,en tried as gold in the fire — whose sins 
have been washed away ! Sorrows that cleanse us ; disappoint- 
ments that make us heavenly minded — blessed are these. 

When trees grow so that their branches are mostly on one 
side, we never restore branches to the deficient side by cutting 
the opposite side. We cut the most barren side, and there na- 
ture, in seeking to restore what we cut, drives out new buds 
and branches. The gardener knows that where he puts the 
knife there will follow the fruit of the tree. And blessed are 
they whom the heavenly husbandman prunes, that they may 
bring forth more fruit, if, when he cuts, there is a bud behind 
the knife ; but woe to them who, being cut, have no bud to 
grow, and are more disbranched and barren for being pruned. 

God grant that we may so live that when we die, whatever 
we leave behind, we may carry more with us, going forth with 



444 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

affluence of soul, clothed with holy affection, full of divine sen- 
timents, possessing a character that fits us to be children of 
God, and companions of his holy angels and saints in heaven. 
May Ave enter there with joy upon our heads, to reign forever 
and forever. 

OCTOBER 13: EVENING. 
And he went in to tarry with them. — Luke xxiv., 29. 
There is a state of the soul in which it has attained such a 
transcendent perception of the divine Being that it not only 
sees God by voluntary thought, but sees him every where in- 
voluntarily. Every thing in nature and society suggests the 
sense of God. All things reflect him ; they are symbols of him. 
Every voice has something of the divine voice. Every form of 
glory brings something of the divine to the mind. Every thing 
that is great or little draws the soul toward, and not away from 
the divine Being, till one can say, " He fills the heavens, he fills 
the earth, he fills the body, he fills the soul, and my life is hid 
in his life. My life is but a taper ; his life is the sun ; and what 
taper can be seen while the sun is abroad in the day ?" There 
have been souls in which the calm, the peace, did pass all under- 
standing, and into which God did come, and abide, and sup, as 
Christ promised that he would. There have been souls conscious 
that they carried Christ with them day and night. They have 
lived in such a state that he dwelt in them. It may be over- 
clouded, just as our life is by the period of sleep ; but as, though 
we have lost our life in sleep, we wake up again, so, though this 
state may be overclouded by care and duty, and may for a mo- 
ment intermit, it returns. And these persons abide in it, identi- 
fied with God, living in the very highest realm of spiritual feel- 
ing and spiritual intuition, upon the borders of the heavenly 
land. 



OCTOBER 14: MORNING. 

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which 
is above every name.— Phil, ii., 9. 

What barns are to mansions, that this world is to heaven. 
What animals are to men, that men are to the superior beings 



OCTOBER. 445 

of the heavenly world. When we have carried these sugges- 
tions from the realm of experience up to the line of the invisible 
and imagined, we shall find that the name of Christ is superior 
to them. There are declarations in the Word of God that that 
name, which has risen above every name here, rises there again. 
For there are beings that rise not only higher than men in wis- 
dom, power, goodness, delightfulness, and companionableness, 
but there is a gradation among them. There are dominions, 
and thrones, and powers, and principalities in long succession. 
As we find long successions of natures among men, and below 
them still longer successions all the way down through crea- 
tion, so we have intimations in the Word of God that this suc- 
cession is continued, and goes up ; and we are told that over 
all these Christ rises — not by arbitrary ranking, not by force, 
but by the intrinsic grandeur of his nature — by the essential 
grace and beauty of his disposition. And because he is " chief 
among ten thousand" and " altogether lovely ;" because he is 
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the 
ending, the bright and morning star, he sits upon the throne 
coequal with the Eternal. 

And yet the name of Christ is a hidden name. Yet it is a 
name undisclosed. Far above every thing that is named upon 
earth, and far above every thing that is named in heaven, which 
is at all understood, his name still goes on. And not until* we 
are there — nor then, until ages have rolled around and given us 
an experience — shall we know what is the height, and the depth, 
and the length, and the breadth, and what the universal glory 
of that name which is above every name. 

OCTOBER 14: EVENING. 
Hold fast that which is good.— 1 Thess. v., 21. 

Make resolutions, even if you break them. Make them — only 
make them wisely, with a strong will and with practical wisdom. 
Try them on every day. Do not forget them. If you do, renew 
them. And even if, when renewed and tried, they are much 
abused and much neglected, cling to them. It is better to have 
an imperfectly-kept resolution than to drift toward damnation 
without hindrance or let. Hold fast to ideals of s;ood and to 



446 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

purposes of amendment It is better to have a good purpose, 
even though you may not fulfill it to your satisfaction. Do 
not be discouraged though the way seems long, and perfection 
seems to delay in coming. 

Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom 
of heaven ; but when once we are there the battle will die 
away, and the darkness will be like a retreating storm, and it 
will be easier to do good than evil. We fight our way here, 
but when we enter the gate of our home above, and know as 
we are known, we shall find that this very conflict has been for 
our education, and has prepared us for the fruition of the ever- 
lasting abode of the blessed. 



OCTOBER 15: MORNING. 

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house 
which is from heaven. — 2 Cor. v., 2. 

All along the way of life we have premonitions of a coming 
future. Our very struggles, our sorrows and yearnings, are so 
many indications of that coming state. The tears that men 
shed, if they be of ungodly sorrow, are of no moral moment, 
but jewels every one, if they are symbols of unrest which the 
inward life experiences by reason of the imperfection of the 
outward life. In this state we groan, being burdened, not that 
we would be unclothed, but clothed upon. We groan not so 
much because we are discontented with the allotments of God's 
providence here, but because he has given us a conception of 
things hereafter so much better that our aspirations rise above 
the present with longing for the future. It is not so much dis- 
content as aspiration. There is high meaning in these yearn- 
ings of the soul. The summer is passing ; the autumn is com- 
ing; birds are gathering — they meditate a far-distant flight. 
And shall the soul have no sense of migration ? There come 
to God's children hours of transfiguration in which the heavens 
are opened, the ground is suffused with glory, and Christ, our 
Head and Savior, shines out royally before us. And these mo- 
mentary glances into the invisible world are the most precious 
part of a man's life. 



OCTOBER. 447 



OCTOBER 15: EVENING. 
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna.— Rev. ii., 17. 

There are some natures that only tempests can bring out. 
I recollect being strongly impressed on reading the account of 
an old castle in Germany with two towers that stood up mighty 
and far apart, between which an old baron stretched large wires, 
thus making a huge seolian harp. There were the wires suspend- 
ed, and the summer breezes played through them, but there was 
no vibration. Common winds, not having power enough to 
move them, split, and went through them without a whistle. 
But when there came along great tempest -winds, and the 
heaven was black, and the air resounded, then these winds, 
with giant touch, swept through the wires, which began to 
ring, and roar, and pour out sublime melodies. 

So God stretches the chords in the human soul, which ordi- 
nary influences do not vibrate ; but now and then great tem- 
pests sweep through them, and men are conscious that tones 
are produced in them which could not have been produced ex- 
cept by some such storm-handling. 

A man may lose all things, in the common acceptation of the 
term, and yet be exceedingly happy and blessed of God. A 
man may be stripped of property, may be bereft of friends, 
may lose his health, may have the way of usefulness blocked 
up to him, and yet he may experience a happiness that is inde- 
scribable if he only has left this thought : " Heaven can not be 
touched. On earth I am like a vessel borne down before a 
tempest, and swept hither and thither ; but there is a rest that 
remaineth : God keeps it for me, and ere long I shall reach it. 
I am sure that I am a better and happier man by reason of the 
things which I have been made to suffer, since they have ren- 
dered my soul susceptible to the mysterious touches of God's 
hand." The man that is willing to stand wherever, in the 
providence of God, his lot may be cast, and that stands victo- 
riously, God will feed, not outwardly alone, but inwardly. 

Then sorrow, touched by thee, grows bright 

With more than rapture's ray, 
As darkness shows us worlds of light 

We could not see by day. 



448 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

OCTOBER 16: MORNING. 

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight:. hut all 
things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 
—Heb. iv., 13. 

Blessed be God, there is not one single wicked thing m 
you which has sprung up since you began a Christian life that 
has surprised God in the least. Persons sometimes think, "Ah ! 
if that friend knew this, he would not love me. I would not 
have it come to his ears for any thing. He took me to be high 
and noble, but if he found this out he would cast me off." Now 
there is nothing for God to find out about you. When he took 
you, he took you knowing the uttermost. He took you as a 
mother takes her child. She thanks God for it, though she 
knows it will be vain, and proud, and selfish, and possess all 
the evils of'temper that belong to the race from which it comes. 
It is hers, and, in spite of its faults, she loves it with unspeakable 
love. And God clasps every soul that he once takes, and takes 
it for good or for evil. 

OCTOBER 16: EVENING. 

I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given 
you by Jesus Christ. — 1 Cor. i.,4. 

Let us open a Christian picture-gallery, and take all men who 
have been martyrs ; all men who, for the sake of maintaining 
truth, have left home and country, and lived in mountains and 
caves ; all who have exiled themselves, and wasted their lives 
in dungeons and hospitals ; all who have stood patiently in their 
lot, and suffered, and died, and gained their victory, and gone to 
glory. I look upon the portraits of these and say, " That grace 
which has carried every one of them through can carry me 
through." That grace which made a saint out of so tumultu- 
ous a nature as Peter ; that grace which could take such a na- 
ture as John's, who invoked fire on the heads of the villagei*s 
because they would not receive Christ, and make it so sweet ; 
that grace which transformed the most fiery temper, and took 
away the desire of vengeance from men, can subdue the hard- 
ness and obduracy of our hearts. Oh ! to see men who have 
been much tried get through safely; to stand by men who 



OCTOBER. 449 

feared death, and see them go into the river to find that all 
fear is taken away from them; to question them as they go 
deeper and deeper, and hear them say, "I fear no evil ;" to hear 
the rustle of vague sounds, as of heavenly music, from that ex- 
ceeding throng on the other side that bear them victoriously 
home — this gives comfort. Can any one witness the departure 
of a man from this life, and his victory over death, without feel- 
ing more fortitude, more faith, more courage for his own battle ? 



OCTOBER 17: MORNING. 
And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus 
had done for him. — Mark v.,. 20. 

We do not bear witness to Christ's work in us half so much 
as we ought. Every day and every where he is with us. It 
is by the grace of God that we are what we are in all that is 
good. He is not far from any of us. He is near to comfort 
you, and to inspire you with courage, and to press you forward 
in the Christian life. At home you are still with the Lord. He 
follows you out from home into your business. Where care 
and temptation are, there is rescue. Where suffering and sor- 
row are, there is comfort. Where darkness comes, there comes 
illumination. Where discouragement comes, there come instruc- 
tion and hope. Your life is enveloped in a perpetual atmosphere 
of divine guardianship. And how much of all this wondrous ex- 
perience of the dealing of God with your soul are you using for 
other people's instruction, to incite and encourage them ? 

When you go home to glory in the other land, and in music 
chant God's goodness to you, nothing will seem more wonder- 
ful to you than your own experience, except the mercy of God 
that delivered you by reason of it ; and shall you delay until 
that glorious hour all recognition of this living work of God in 
your soul ? 

OCTOBER 17: EVENING. 

The gentleness of Christ. — 2 Cor. x., 1. 

With a conception before your mind of what God is in his 

moral aptitudes and discriminations, as well as what he is in 

his infinity, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, con- 

Ff 



450 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

sider what tax he has had on his patience and his forbearance, 
and what his gentleness must be in the light of human provo- 
cations. 

The life of every individual is a long period of moral delin- 
quency. No one who has not had the experience of a parent 
can have any adequate conception of the patience and gentle- 
ness exercised even by a mother in rearing her child, from the 
cradle to the door of the world, when', at twenty-one years of 
age, he goes forth from her care. It is only after-experience 
that can give the child a true idea of how much the mother 
bore with him, and how much kindness, love, forbearance, gen- 
erosity, delicacy, and gentleness she showed toward him during 
his passage from infancy to manhood. True mothers are God's 
miniatures in this world, and we see portrayed in them, on a 
small scale, the very traits and delineations of that character 
which makes God the eternal Father of sinful men. 

Lord, what am I, that with unceasing care 

Thou didst seek after me ? that thou didst wait, 

Wet with unhealthy dews, before my gate, 

And pass the gloomy nights of winter there ? 

Oh, strange delusion, that I did not greet 

Thy blessed approach ! and oh, to heaven how lost, 

If my ingratitude's unkindly frost 

Has chilled the bleeding wounds upon thy feet ! 

How oft my guardian angel gently cried, 

" Soul, from thy casement look, and thou shalt see 

How he persists to knock and wait for thee ;" 

And oh ! how often to that voice of sorrow, 

"To-morrow we will open," I replied ; 

And when to-morrow came, I answered still " To-morrow." 



OCTOBER 18: MORNING. 

If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar ; for he that 
loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath 
not seen ? — 1 John iv., 20. 

Theee are not two sets of duties and two classes of feelings 
required of men — one a lower, and called virtue, and the other 
a higher, and called piety. Piety and virtue are just the same 
at root and in moral quality. Love is one and the same wheth- 
er you apply it to men or to God. Truth is one and the same 
whether you apply it to your fellow, to an archangel, or to him 
who is the King of both. Piety is the taking of man's reason, 



OUTOBEJR. 451 

and moral sentiments, and affections, and exercising them to- 
ward God. Virtue is the taking these same faculties and exer- 
cising them toward men. It is more noble to love God than to 
love a man ; but, after all, the feeling is the same. "We should 
therefore maintain this unity. Piety is not a substitute for 
virtue. If a man does not love, honor, and obey. his fellow- 
men, he will not love, honor, nor obey his God ; and if a man 
has the qualities which make him a good Christian, he has the 
qualities which will make him a good husband, a good citizen, 
and a good neighbor. 

OCTOBER 18: EVENING. 
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this 
world shall keep it unto life eternal. — John xii., 25. 

I stood in the public burning-place at Oxford, where the old 
reformers were burned, and with inexpressible feelings I went 
back in thought and history to their time ; but I have seen 
cases of martyrs that were burned at the stake which were 
much more piteous than these. I have seen many a woman 
who, because she would not betray fealty, and because she 
could not yield love, was day and night burned at the stake 
of an intemperate husband, bound to him, suffering more than 
he suffered, covering his shame, hiding his faults, repairing his 
mistakes, studying his welfare, pouring out her life for his 
worthless life. Oh martyrs of to-day, be not discouraged. 
You are following in the steps of the great Victor, who by de- 
feat was victorious. Remember that Christ gained his victory 
by patient waiting in suffering. Remember what, by his serv- 
ant, he said, "No chastening for the present seemeth to be joy- 
ous, but grievous ; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peace- 
able fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised there- 

by." 

OCTOBER 19 : MORNING. 

Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath. — 
Ephes. iv., 26. 

Nobody is at liberty to carry himself in an irritable, an ill- 
tempered, a waspish mood. That is sinful always and every 
where. It is without justification. Where we meet with 



452 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

things that are mean, we should feel that they are mean ; 
where we meet with things that are dishonorable, we should 
feel that they are dishonorable. Do not hesitate to give ex- 
pression to your hatred of things which are essentially untrue, 
essentially base, essentially mean, but let not the sun go down 
on your wrath. Be angry when there is a just cause for it, but 
get over it speedily. 

When brought into the presence and under the temptation 
of evil, men are to rouse up the power of indignation that God 
has planted in them, and they are to clothe the higher moral 
nature with such resentment as shall change the temptation 
from a solicitation into a loathing. The command is that we 
shall strike dead whatever is low, and vile, and mean with the 
energy of a certain divine hatred. This is not merely a per- 
mission, it is not a doubtful power ; it is a part of your Chris- 
tian duty, it is a religious excellence. 

OCTOBER 19: EVENING. 
Behold how he loved him. — John xi., 36. 
I find many persons that speak of loving Christ, but it is 
only now and then that I meet those who seem to be penetra- 
ted deeply with a consciousness of Christ's love to them, of its 
boundlessness, its wealth, its fineness, its exceeding delicacy, its 
transcendency in every line and lineament of possible concep- 
tion. Once in a while people have this view break upon them 
in meeting, or in some sick-hour which leaves the mind not only 
not obscured, but more acute, or in some revival moment. That 
is a blessed visitation which brings to the soul a realization of 
the capacity of God to love imperfect beings with infinite love, 
and which enables a man to adapt this truth to his shame-hours, 
his sorrow-hours, his love-hours, and his selfish hours, and to find 
all the time that there is in the revelation of the love of God in 
Christ Jesus all-sufficient food for the soul. It is, indeed, almost 
to have the gate of heaven opened to you. The treasure is in- 
exhaustible. 

Immortal love, forever full, 

Forever flowing free, 
Forever shared, forever whole, 

A never-ebbing sea. 



OCTOBER. - 453 



OCTOBER 20 : MORNING. 
He, being dead, yet speaketh. — Heb. xi., 4. 

When the sun disappears below the horizon he is not down. 
The heavens glow for a full hour after his departure. And 
when a great and good man sets, the west is luminous long 
after he is out of sight. A room in which flowers have been is 
sweet long after the flowers have been taken away ; they leave 
a fragrance behind. And a godly man, who lives unselfishly, 
and disinterestedly, and seeks the good of other men, can not 
die out of this world. When he goes hence he leaves behind 
much of himself. There have been many men who left behind 
them that which hundreds of years have not worn out. The 
earth has Socrates and Plato to this day. The world is richer 
yet by Moses and the old prophets than by the wisest states- 
men. We are indebted to the past. We stand in the great- 
ness of ages that are gone rather than in that of our own. 
But of how many of us shall it be said that, being dead, we yet 



OCTOBER SO: EVENING. 
For which cause we faint not ; hut though our outward man perish, yet the 
inward man is renewed day by day. — 2 Cor. iv., 16. 

What am I but rude granite ? God found me lying in the 
hedge, and by troubles he drilled and blasted me out, by troub- 
les he lifted me up, and now with constant clink of chisel and 
mallet he is fashioning me. God's chisel works inside and not 
outside, and the things that he chips off are the very things 
that we do not want to have chipped off. That is the reason 
why the blows he inflicts on us are so painful. God wants to 
make us patient, and cheerful, and happy, and good ; he wants 
to make us rich in the inward part ; he wants to make us supe- 
rior to the body ; he wants to prepare us for a state of eternal 
blessedness, and the means which he employs in doing this are 
the troubles of this world. We look at them merely in their 
relation to our condition in the present, and, not understanding 
their relation to our condition in the future, regard them as mis- 
fortunes. But Christ says, " Do not grieve over these things. 



454 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

They are for your benefit. I love you, and that is the reason 
why I punish you. It is a punishment, not of vengeance, but 
of love, that I call you to bear. It is because I love you that 
I afflict you and develop your higher nature. I would fain 
work out in you a character worthy of you and of your God ; 
therefore do not faint." 



OCTOBER 21 : MORNING. 
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may 
have fellowship with us : and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and 
with his Son Jesus Christ. — 1 John i., 3. 

Why is it so difficult, in talking with people, to lead them 
to throw aside their doubts and accept Christ as their Savior ? 
Because our efficiency in Christian work depends very much 
upon the state of our own soul. A man whose Christ is near 
and dear to him, and who has a glowing experience, and pours 
it out into the souls of others, will help them faster and farther 
than almost any one else. The most fruitful days that I have 
had have been those in which I had something to tell the in- 
quirer about Christ that I myself had felt. I have had the best 
success when I had a heart filled with love, and zeal, and enthu- 
siasm, which, flowing out in tides, would catch the hearts of 
those with whom I was laboring, and carry them along. And 
I have seen many persons converted. 

Have you never, after a cloud has long cast its dark shadow 
on a field, seen the shadow slowly move away, and leave the 
field exposed to the full light of the sun ? I have seen the 
shadow move off from the souls of persons in the same way, 
and leave them exposed to the light of the Sun of Righteous- 
ness. 

OCTOBER 21 : EVENING. 

Preach the word ; be instant in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, ex- 
hort with all long-suffering and doctrine. — 2 Tim. iv., 2. 

Although winter is not the time for sowing seed, every gar- 
dener who has a glass house will tell you that there are some 
seeds to be put in in the winter time. Although spring is the 
general time for putting in seed, every farmer will tell you that 



OCTOBER. 455 

he sows some kinds of seed in June and July, and other kinds 
in September and October. 

It is just so in moral husbandry. And what is meant by be- 
ing " instant in season and out of season" is working at the ap- 
pointed times and by the usual methods, and then working in- 
termediately whenever you get a chance, and, if need be, by 
methods differing from those ordinarily adopted. 

Of the seeds that I sowed last spring on the side-hill, where 
there was v a strong wind, some did not go into the little fur- 
rows that I had made, but were blown to other places, where 
they sprang up ; and I have noticed that some of the stockiest, 
strongest, and best plants are those that were chance-sown. 

Now that which is true of the garden is true in respect to 
religious work. Some things that are done without prescribed 
form are more profitable than things that are done in a formal 
way. Work out of season is oftentimes as much blessed of God 
as things done in season. 



OCTOBER 22: MORNING. 
This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.— 1 John v., 4. 

It is hard to turn a life that is misdirected into right chan- 
nels ; it is hard to change wrong feeling to right feeling ; but 
it can be done. And the victory will pay for the struggle. 
Not those victories which come easiest are most sweet to us. 

When we draw near to that other and better city whose 
bright domes flash God's eternal light, and over whose battle- 
ments come sweet voices to us to-day, saying, " Come, come," 
one single look, one waft of its perfume, one echo of its joy, will 
repay us for every tear, for every sorrow, and for every discour- 
agement. 

Then gird up your loins. Take a new lease of life. Form a 
higher purpose for the future. Have more courage — not cour- 
age which comes from a consciousness of your own strength, 
but that courage which comes from the certainty that " it is 
God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good 
pleasure." O children of the living God, my Father's children, 
my brothers and sisters, heirs with me to an eternal inheritance, 



456 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

let us take hold of hands with a new covenant, with new sweet- 
ness of love and joy, and begin to live for the heavenly land. 

OCTOBER 22: EVENING. 
the hope of Israel, the Savior thereof in time of trouble. — Jer. xiv., 8. 

Surrounded by cares, afflicted by various experiences, borne 
down with bereavements, harassed by troubles, harnessed to 
business that will not let you go, you wilt, you grieve, you 
faint, you stumble, you fall down, you are biased and swayed, 
and you come to live by the very stress of your physical life — 
by sight and not by faith. And that which you need above 
all other things is such an entire subjection of your inward na- 
ture to the will of God and to the welfare of mankind, that you 
will rejoice in suffering, and count it all joy when you fall into 
divers temptations. Do you say it is unnatural ? Yes, it is un- 
natural. It is of grace, and not of nature. But it is of the inte- 
rior life, in which there is victory over ease, over trouble, over 
temptation. And when you are tempted to look by the natural 
eye, and to judge things merely by secular wisdom, you need to 
turn to the cross of Christ, and understand the foolishness of 
that cross, and know that, after all, it is the very power of God. 



OCTOBER 23: MORNING. 
A word spoken in due season, how good is it! — Prov. xv., 23. 

A single word spoken, you know not what it falls upon. 
You know not on what soul it rests. In some moods, words 
fall off from us, and are of no account. But there are other 
moods in which a word of hope, a word of cheer, a word of 
sympathy, is as balm. It changes the sequence of thought, 
and the whole order and direction of the mind. A single word 
is often like a switch on a railroad, which, although it is a point 
almost too fine to be seen, yet is sufficient, when turned, to 
change the course of the train from one track to another, and 
perhaps from one road to another. Single words have often 
switched men off from bad courses, or off from good ones, as the 
case may be. Many a man, by a simple action which was born 



OCTOBER. 457 

of virtue, and which passed by him unconsciously, has deter- 
mined the fate of those who were looking up to him. A good 
man stands in the community as a tree stands on a lawn in sum- 
mer, full of blossoms, of which it is unconscious, but which ev- 
ery one who goes past the lawn sees, and blesses the tree for. 
The sweet odor of the apple-tree is wafted in every direction, 
and myriads are participators of its life and efflorescence, or of 
its after-fruit. And so a great nature stands forth in bud, and 
in blossom, and in after-maturation, and there go out from him 
in every direction influences for instruction, confirmation, inspi- 
ration. A thousand things which the man never thought to do, 
he does. More are the things which you do, not meaning to do 
them, than are the things which you do, intending to do them. 

OCTOBER 23: EVENING. 
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abound- 
6th by Christ.— 2 Cor. i., 5. 

Suffering is sometimes an infirmity, sometimes a misfortune, 
and sometimes a sin ; but, whichever it is, there is in it an argu- 
ment of patience. Christ suffered too. Arm yourselves, there- 
fore. Hear him saying, " In the world ye shall have tribula- 
tion ; but be of good cheer : I have overcome the world." " In 
that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to suc- 
cor them that are tempted." Is it sickness of body ? Is it dis- 
appointment of outward support ? Is it the overthrow of all 
your worldly expectations ? Is it the bitter thrust of the child's 
disobedience ? Is it bankruptcy of heart at the loss of one 
much beloved ? Is it trouble occasioned by your own pride ? 
Is it the irritableness of your passion ? Is it some surprising sin 
that leaped out like a lion from ambush, and took you down ? 
Is it backsliding along the soiled and slimy way of the passions ? 
Is it any duty so great that you dare not assail it ? What is 
the trouble or trial that you have ? Is it greater than those 
troubles and trials that overshadowed Jesus ? Is it possible for 
the fibre of your little soul, however much it may be tried, to 
suffer in any direction as Jesus Christ's great sounding soul 
suffered in that same direction ? He has declared, Because I 
have been a sufferer, right where you are, and was triumphant, 
I have power to give triumph to you. 



458 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Come boldly, then, to this suffering Savior. Make his suffer- 
ings the argument of your consolation, and rejoice in this that 
you are strong, because great is he that hath undertaken for 
you. 



OCTOBER 24: MORNING. 

He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.— Mark vii., 37. 

Have you no testimony to give ? If God should call you 
back again to start in life, would you live your life over again 
just as you have ? Were there no fundamental mistakes ? Are 
there no passions whose mastery you would disallow, and whose 
blight you have felt ? Is there no experience that would cor- 
roborate the testimony of God's word, that righteousness is 
prosperity, and that the higher the scale of motives which man 
brings to bear upon business, the better is it even for business, 
even setting aside its moral influence upon character? Is a 
man to go through life working out these great moral prob- 
lems, and thus come to results which are of vital importance to 
the young, then to be dumb, and never bear witness ? Would 
Isaiah have done right, when God's Spirit inspired him with 
great truths, if he had refused to utter them ? Does not God, 
all your life, inspire you with truths of which you are bound to 
be a witness ? Men sometimes declare, " I am a Christian, but 
I have nothing to say ;" and yet the most momentous problems 
of moral being have been wrought out in your history. You 
have lived a life that is more wonderful than was the original 
circumnavigation of the globe. Captain Cook's voyages are 
mere child's play compared with the voyage that every adult 
man has made. The experiences which you have known, inter- 
preted in the light of God's truth, are of momentous importance. 
And will you be dumb ? 

Ah ! never can I praise enough 

The mercy thou hast shown ; 
When days were dark and storms were rough, 

Thou mad'st thy kindness known. 

Ah I though I lived a thousand years, 

And spake with thousand tongues, 
I could not tell with words nor tears 

What praise to thee belongs. 



459 



OCTOBER 24: EVENING. 
When lie giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? — Job xxxiv., 29. 

Christ alone slept on the sea when every thing else raged, 
and, awakening, he quieted the turbulent elements. When men 
were bestormed, he was the only one who could say, " Peace I 
give you — my peace." So, in the midst of the sorrows and 
troubles of life, those who bear the spirit of the Master, and see 
fit to be his companions, though they seem to be left almost 
alone, are, after all, the only ones who are rich and strong ; for 
as the sources of the stream are in the mountain, where there is 
no drought, so the consolations of the soul are with God, the 
eternal friend, the everlasting companion. 

If, then, you have been discouraged, gird up your loins again. 
If you think you are forgotten ; if you feel that you are neg- 
lected ; if you are conscious of being cast out as a stranger 
in a strange land ; if you seem to yourselves to have toiled 
thanklessly, do not look on the dark side of your experience. 
Remember that you are not alone as long as you have faith in 
Christ. You have father and mother, and brother and sister, 
variously grouped in one, under the arch of divine love ; and 
the love of God in Christ Jesus is enough to fill you with peace, 
and satisfy the yearnings and desires of your souls. Then look 
to Christ. 



OCTOBER 25 : MORNING. 
Ye that love the Lord, hate evil. — Psalm xcvii., 10. 
God made the earth full of soft and tender things, and just 
as full of hard and rugged things ; and both are good in their 
places. Can any thing be gentler and sweeter than the million 
glad things that are opening their eyes in the grass to-day ? or 
harder than the rocks and roots that they grow among ? The 
blossoms of orchards and gardens, how delicate and tender ! 
the wood that holds them, how hard and tough ! The clouds 
that fill the summer days, and move without footsteps in the 
air, are yet full of bolts that rend oaks and make the earth to 
tremble. 



460 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

And, in like manner, God has clothed the human mind with 
all sweet and gentle tastes, with all yearning and climbing af- 
fections, with all relishes ; but the soul is clothed also with a 
power of wrath the most terrible, and for the most beneficent 
uses. There is given to good men almost a sublime indigna- 
tion, a high and godlike hatred of evil, the exercise of which, 
under appropriate circumstances, is an act of the highest virtue 
and of the sublimest piety. 

OCTOBER 25: EVENING. 
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. — Gal. vi., 2. 

We must have the spirit of Christ or we are none of his. Do 
men offend against you ? Do your children try you ? Do those 
around about you vex you ? And does it never seem to you as 
though you were trying your God ? Does it never seem to you 
as though you were offending against Christ ? He bears with 
you, and so you are to bear with those that, to the extremest 
point, wring your spirit and try your life. Are there those 
about you who need succor and help? Have you done some 
things for them ? We oftentimes think we have done our duty 
when we have spoken a word of warning, or have taken a step 
to render them assistance. If they come to us twice or thrice, 
we become discouraged with our work, and give it up. But 
how long has God borne with us ? With what generousness and 
love does he carry us, our sins, and our sorrows ? And can we 
not bear and forbear with our fellow-men ? Are you a teach- 
er ? Are you not guilty of impatience and severity ? Is it not 
easier for you to condemn than to inspire ; to punish than to 
heal ? Are you in relations of life where men serve you ? Have 
you the spirit of Christ toward them ? or are you irritable, ex- 
acting, impatient, making every one take the consequence of his 
own sin, and saying, "I told you how it would be, and now you 
must carry your own burden." Christ taught us to bear one 
another's burdens. 



OCTOBER 26: MORNING. 
Our Father which art in heaven. — Matt, vi., 9. 
What a history has there been to this Lord's Prayer, if it 



OCTOBER. 461 

could be gathered up from all the hearts and homes that have 
felt its benign influence since it fell coined from the lips of the 
Savior ! It has been breathed from the budding lips of children 
and from the withered lips of the old ; it has gone up from dun- 
geons, from mansions, and from palaces. The exile, the prison- 
er, the rover, the sick, have found it a ready aid to their sor- 
rows. How many sweet scenes has this prayer witnessed ! how 
many mothers teaching it to their children ! how many house- 
holds gathered together hushed in worship by this simple for- 
mula ! Oh, what is the Lord's Prayer to us, who were the chil- 
dren of Christian parents ! It comes to us bearing not alone 
its divine meanings, but clothed with the associations of our 
early days. We see again the village. "We hear the Sabbath 
jjroclaimed by the far-sounding bell. Father and mother are 
more sacred to-day. The air is clearer, and earth more won- 
drously beautiful. Silence is on the fields. The world seems to 
be worshiping God. In those hours of memory we uttered with 
inattentive lips these golden sentences ; but, though they meant 
little to us then, how much more do they bring with them of 
precious recollections from those strange, fantastic days of 
childhood ! And never do we hear the opening words, " Our 
Father which art in heaven," that we do not glance back to 
our earthly father and our early home, and we enter the heav- 
enly presence taught by the love and reverence of the earthly. 

OCTOBER 26: EVENING. 
Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.— Isaiah i., 3. 

We are too selfish to know God. We do not ourselves know 
enough love to talk in the language of heaven; and that which 
we have is too often so. allied to things lower and baser, that it 
is adulterated love. We can not understand our God because 
we are so far from him, and so unlike him. Yet that does not 
destroy us ; for, as we care for our children long before they 
know us, as we care for them when sickness takes away their 
reason and judgment, so God, looking upon the distemperature 
of our souls, and seeing all the misery that it threatens, is still 
patient with us, and his heart is our nursery. There are we 
tended and cared for. Oh that we but knew it ! Oh that we 



462 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

but knew the royalty that is around us. With what mean- 
ings would his providence every day speak to us if our eye was 
only cleansed from all films, and our hearts from selfishness ; 
if we could at times know how he watches over us in sickness ; 
if in the darkness of our delirium we could understand that he 
is not far from us — not far from any one of us ; not far from 
the most sinful ; not far from the guiltiest and wickedest. If 
we but knew these things, what hope of recovery would come 
to us ! What joy of salvation ! It is thy gentleness that shall 
save us, O Lord Jesus ! it is not the might nor the power of our 
own will;. for the more sternly we stand up, the more brittle 
are we, and the more easily are we snapped before the breeze. 
It is thy love, it is thy patience, it is that power working in us 
— that holy and blessed Spirit of light and comfort. By thy 
mercy, by thy goodness, by thy gentleness we shall be saved. 

Men spurned God's grace ; their lips blasphemed 

The love that made itself their slave : 
They grieved that blessed Comforter, 

And turned against him what he gave. 

No voice God's wondrous silence breaks, 

No hand put forth his anger tells ; 
But he, the Omnipotent and Dread, 

On high in humblest patience dwells. 
And still the Father keeps himself, 

In patient and forbearing love, 
To be his creature's heritage 

In that undying life above. 



OCTOBER 27: MORNING. 
We know not what we should pray for as we ought. — Rom. viii., 26. 
I go to God and say, " I am very poor, I am very ignorant, 
I am very sinful, I am utterly unworthy to speak to thee ; but 
let me, O God, speak right on, and do .thou sort out what I say, 
and put it in its proper relations. Let me relieve my mind." 
And I speak on ; and sometimes it is petition, sometimes it is 
revery, sometimes it is soliloquy. I do not give myself any 
trouble about my prayer. God hears me, and he sorts what I 
say, and gives it its right name. I never think of husbanding 
all that my ground raises from my sowing. I winnow my 
grain ; and God winnows my prayers, and lets the chaff fly, and 
saves the wheat. 



OCTOBER. 463 

"Why give yourself any trouble about whether the things for 
which you pray are best ? If it comforts you to pray about 
them, then pray about them ; otherwise do not. Put yourself 
under the direction of God's spirit, and follow its leadings. 
And as respects all questions which are to turn on human 
judgment, my own habit is to pray for things just as I want 
them to be, and then say, " Now, if there is any thing better, 
please do that." I make up a case the best way I can, and then 
say, " If God sees any thing better, let him please to do it." 

A capitalist, writing a letter of instruction to his agent in 
Marseilles, says, "I have a million dollars' worth of property in 
France, and the state of the empire is such, politically, that I 
think you had better dispose of it so and so ; but you are on 
the ground, and I have perfect confidence in your judgment, 
and if you see reasons why these directions should not be fol- 
lowed, depart from them, and do as you think best." 



OCTOBER 27: EVENING, 

In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless 
thee.— Exod. xx. , 24. 

Some of the brightest insights come to Christians suddenly, 
in unexpected places, without any volitional preparation. Some 
of the most amazing joys break forth in hours not set apart for 
joy. As many of the Lord's days proye dull days, so many days 
that are not Lord's days prove bright days. For, though God 
meets us in the church, and meets us at the altar, he does not 
confine himself to the church nor to the altar. The road is his ; 
the mountain still is his ; the valley yet is his ; the river-course, 
the edge of the sea, and the broad ocean are his ; and God, who 
is every where, whose bounties are innumerable, who flashes 
forth his glory from the great temple above, filling the earthly 
temples, and filling the dwellings, and the fields, and all places 
— God is to be sought where you need him. He is to be found 
wherever the soul is ready to receive him. In some tender 
moment, amidst cares, and toils, and sorrows, often there starts 
up the thought of the divine presence with such majesty and 
beauty as a thousand Sabbaths could not shadow forth in the 
ordinary experience of Christians. Christ may be found at the 



464 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

well, if you come there to draw. Christ may be found at the 
receipt of custom, where Matthew found him. Christ may be 
found behind the bier, where the widow found him. Christ 
may be found on the sea, where the disciples found him when 
they were fishing. He is moving with world-filling presence 
every where. 



OCTOBER 2%: MORNING. 
By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. — John x., 9. 

I have sometimes thought that a doubter might well be com- 
pared to one lost in a blinding snow-storm. If any of you have 
had experience on our Western prairies, you know that here in 
this thickly-settled and forest-clad country there is no match 
for the storms that take place there in winter. On the open 
prairie, one starts upon his journey, every landmark clear and 
the way familiar. Little by little, as the hours pass on, a haze 
creeps down the horizon. The sun is gone, with a pale and 
watery farewell. Snow in scattered flakes begins to descend, 
and gradually increases. The road is soon whitened and oblit- 
erated. There are no fences, and nothing by which he can di- 
rect his course. He begins to be uncertain of the direction, 
and is alarmed. And with alarm comes exertion, which makes 
his case worse and worse. His course is devious and circuitous. 
He wanders round and round. His own very track is covered 
almost as soon as made. Often and often he is in the same 
place. He is moving in circuits, though he thinks himself to 
be going forward. He grows chilly and numb. Drowsiness 
steals over him. He thinks he will rest, though he knows that 
rest will be his death. He thinks he must sit down ; yet he 
will not. And just as the struggle seems about to be decided 
against him, he discerns a light. It is faint and somewhat dis- 
tant, but it is enough. With faint resolution he follows it. 
And he stumbles at last, headlong as it were, upon the door 
of the cottage which dimly appeared through the descending 
snow, and his very violence bursts it open ; unable to sustain 
himself, he sinks down as one dead. And he is safe. The 
storm is behind him, and he has found rescue. Not by his own 



OCTOBER. 4g5 

strength, not by his own wisdom, hut simply by the "protection 
which has come to him, he is saved. 

So there are men that have wandered in this world from 
church to church, from theory to theory, from doctrine to doc- 
trine, from belief to belief, from belief to unbelief, and from un- 
belief to restless yearning, saying at last, " Who will show us 
any good ?" Round and round they wander, over their own 
paths undiscerned, until at last, well-nigh discouraged, they 
give up. But for all this, there comes the opening, at last, of 
a door through which streams the light of'Christ Jesus. There 
comes an hour to many a doubting wanderer when Christ is 
presented to him so beauteous, so real, that he clasps him. 
And as one will not give up a dream that he has dreamed, so 
sweet was it to him, but frames it into a picture and cherishes 
it in his memory, so men looking upon Christ, and doubting 
whether he be a reality or a vision, hold on to the brightness, 
the joy, and the living power of Christ Jesus, and thus are 
cured of all doubt. " 



OCTOBER 28: EVENING. 

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 
... If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive 
a reward. If any man's work shall he burned, he shall suffer loss: but he 
himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. — 1 Cor. iii., 11, 14, 15. 

A noble life, begun early and completed wisely, looks to me 
like a fair building which taste erects. The left hand is taste, 
and the right hand wealth. Although, when the house is being 
built, men do not see exactly what is meant, beholding dirt 
thrown out, the materials scattered around, and the workmen's 
chips and shavings, the mortar and the lime surrounding, and 
the scaffold hiding it, yet, when the building is completed, the 
scaffolding taken down, the soil and dirt removed, and the 
household are moved in, and the lights burn in the windows, 
and there is music in every room, and love consecrates every 
hall and passage, how beautiful then is that accomplished build- 
ing ! Such is the life of a good man. A bad man, whose life 
is a failure in all its moral purposes — what is that ? It is like 
the burnt district in Charleston — the saddest sight I ever saw 
in my life. I walked up and down its streets, and took a lesson 
Gg 



466 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

which, if I were to live a thousand years, I should never forget. 
It was a city of my own land. I loved it as I love my own. 
The fire had devoured it. There stood the stacks of chimneys, 
gaunt against the % avenging sky ; and there stood the tottering 
walls ; and there huge heaps of noisome materials, where rep- 
tiles resorted ; weeds grew rankly, and the dried stalks of last 
year's weeds grimly stood thick all around. Street after street 
was marked with emptiness and desolation. Such seems to me 
to be the life of many a man, all the ways of whose life are cum- 
bered with the wrecks of the past, and all of whose plans at 
last shall perish as with an eternal fire and desolation. 

In the elder days of art, 

Builders wrought with greatest care 

Each minute and unseen part ; 
Tor the gods see every where. 

Let us do our work as well, 

Both the unseen and the seen — 
Make the house where God may dwell 

Beautiful, entire, and clean — 

Else our lives are incomplete, 

Standing in these walls of Time 
Broken stairways, where the feet 

Stumble as they seek to climb. 



OCTOBER 29: MORNING-. 
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is 
in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. — 1 
Cor. ii., 11. 

The soul has greater power than the body. The interpre- 
tation of the senses is not to be compared to the interpreta- 
tion of the moral consciousness. And when God comes to 
the soul, he does not come through the eye, nor the ear, nor 
any sense ; he comes through the soul's gate ; he comes through 
that inward way which is plain to those who know it, and in- 
explicable and mysterious to those who do not ; he comes ful- 
filling what he has declared, that he would manifest himself 
to his people, not to the world. What this process is, no one 
can tell. No one can explain the philosophy of it. When 
you wish to sound the understanding, there is a line and 
plummet with which you can touch the bottom. When you 
wish to sound the various senses, you can reach them. It is 



OCTOBER. 



467 



only when you come to the heart that yon find places too deep 
for measuring. It is in the heart that the elements of eternity 
and infinity are found. No man has ever fathomed the heart's 
experiences. Poets have striven in vain to describe the emo- 
tions of the soul when it blossoms in all the ecstasies of love. 
And if this is so when one human soul touches another, how 
much less can it be understood or expounded when God touch- 
es our heart and kindles his affection on the altar of our affec- 
tions ! All we can say of it is, that it is the secret of God; but 
once having known it and felt it, no man doubts it again. 

OCTOBER 29: EVENING. 
Christ is all and in all. — Colos. iii., 11. 

Consider what Christ is, and especially what he is to you. 
Consider what it is to have one who is in himself th^sum of 
all those excellences which, in their separate and scattered ele- 
ments, you so much admire and desire to see among men. I 
not only think of God along that line of analogy which is de- 
rived from human nature and human character, but I love to 
think that there is in him a perfection of these things which I 
see and admire in their simple forms in men. My God is, above 
all other things, Poet. I, that admire Shakspeare, and Milton, 
and Chaucer, love to think that these were shoots thrown out, 
and that the great Singer is my God. I follow the footsteps 
of men that have walked in the way of beauty — the carvers, 
and painters, and builders, and makers of music — all the chil- 
dren of art ; and I say, when we stand with God, we shall find 
him to be the great Architect, the great Builder, the great 
Moulder of beauty, the great Painter. He lets us see from 
day to day something of the frescoes which he has painted in 
the heaven that is aBove our head with a prodigality that is 
amazing. And I love to think of God as the sum of all these 
excellences. "Wiser is he than the»wisest statesman that at- 
tracts admiration ; more eloquent than the finest speaker ; 
more lordly than the bravest warrior; more kingly than the 
highest potentate; more glorious than the most beauteous 
spirit that ever walked upon the earth. All that you see in 
the faculties of men orb themselves up and form in him infinite 



468 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

attributes. And there is a wealth in him, such that when you 
stand in his presence alone, it will be as if you stood in the 
midst of the whole universe of poets, and artists, and orators, 
and noble natures, God himself being all of them, and the foun- 
tain from which all of them draw their supplies. 



OCTOBER 30 : MORNING. 

Whereupon, king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. 
— Acts xxvi., 19. 

No men in this world are more worthy of being called noble 
than those who keep their soul sensitive to every revelation of 
right and duty, and who are accustomed to follow every intui- 
tion and disclosure of right and duty with instant obedience 
and performance. How is it with you? Are you conscious 
that yoii_have put doing right under all circumstances higher 
than every thing else ? Is that life which you are living, as a 
member of the Church and as an avowed follower of the Savior, 
a life which has come to this point of prompt obedience to duty? 
Are you conscious that, at the moment you perceive the right, 
you perform it? Have you come to this settled conclusion: "I 
will never fail to follow that which is revealed to me as right, 
whether in little things or in great things, whether in words or 
deeds ; whatever I see to be right, no matter what company I 
may be in, no matter what interest I may sacrifice, no matter 
what risks I may run, I will follow ?" Has this radical idea of 
instantly following that which is right leavened your religion ? 
Is there this determination in you: "I will follow my moral 
convictions in my interests, in my pleasures, in my sympathies, 
in the customs of society ; I will follow, not the thing which 
my business will allow, but what seems to me right ; if I fail 
to do this, I shall be guilty in the sight of my own conscience 
and before God ?" 



OCTOBERS: EVENING. 
Because I live, ye shall live also. — John xiv., 19. 
That is the end of trouble. Now sorrow is crowned with 
hope. Now the gate is thrown open. Now the angel .sits 



OCTOBER. 4g9 

upon the stone. Now the emergent Christ walks forth light 
and glorious as the sun in the heavens. Now the lost is found. 
Now all the stars hang like gems, and jewels, and treasures for 
us. Now, since Christ says that out of all these experiences he 
shall bring forth life, even as his own life was brought forth 
out of the tomb, what is there that we need trouble ourselves 
about ? 

Christian brethren, do you know how to be glad, and to make 
others glad in the midst of your trouble? Do you know how 
to stand in the midst of your losses and disappointments so 
that men shall say, "After all, it is not troublesome to be af- 
flicted?" Do you know how to be peaceful in the midst of 
deepest bereavements ? Do you know how to seek Christ in 
the very tomb ? Do you know how to employ the tomb as the 
astronomer employs the lens, which in the darkness reveals to 
him vast depths and infinite stretches of created things in the 
space beyond ? Do you know how to look through the grave 
and see what there is on the other side — the glory and power 
of God ? Blessed are they to whom Christ hath revealed the 
meaning of grief. 

By thy command, where'er I stray, 
Sorrow attends me all my way, 

A never-failing friend ; 
And if my sufferings may augment 
Thy praise, behold me well content — 

Let Sorrow still attend. 

It costs me no regret that she 

Who followed Christ should follow me ; 

And though, where'er she goes, 
Thorns spring spontaneous at her feet, 
I love her, and extract a sweet 

From all my bitter woes. 



OCTOBER 31 : MORNING. 
If any man be a worshiper of God and doeth his will, him he heareth. — 
John ix.,31. 

It has been held by some that there is an efficacy in prayer 
such that we have a right to go to God without the use of 
means. Accounts are given of men who have built orphan 
asylums, hospitals, and other benevolent institutions, and pro- 
fessed to do it through the power of prayer, without any kind 



470 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

of p re vision, or provision, or consideration of the application of 
means to ends. The lesson taught in such books, if there is any 
lesson taught in them, is that prayer is, in and of itself, a suffi- 
cient instrumentality for all the wants and needs of men, so 
that if we only have faith and come to God in prayer, whatever 
we desire he will provide for us. Now I can not doubt the 
power of prayer, nor can I doubt that direct and pertinent an- 
swers are received to the faithful supplications of God's people ; 
but I do not believe that there is any such power in prayer as 
this. We are to pray, but prayer is to accompany and supple- 
ment the exercise of our own natural powers. God did not 
give us an understanding for nothing. He did not intend that 
we should lay it aside and not use ft. It is to be employed ac- 
cording to its law. We are to exert ourselves in things that 
are right, and pray for help. Then, when human wisdom comes 
short, we may expect that God will supplement it with his bet- 
ter wisdom ; and so far as by ignorance, or even by the limita- 
tions of sin, we are rendered inadequate for the emergencies in 
which we are placed, we may look for the interposition of God 
by his providence in our behalf. 



OCTOBER 31 : EVENING. 

Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of wit- 
nesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset 
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before vis.—IIeb. xii.,1. 

Although we may see "ourselves before a vulgar age, in an 
uneducated community, and among men that lack appreciation, 
yet let us remember that these are not the only spectators of 
our acts. There are airy hosts, blessed spectators, and sym- 
pathetic lookers-on that see, and know, and appreciate our 
thoughts, and feelings, and acts. If we can bring ourselves to 
realize this, it will lift us above the necessity of vulgar praise, 
and above any depression that we may feel for the want of ap- 
preciation and praise from men. It is the great tribunal, airy 
and invisible, before whom we live more really than before vis- 
ible and fleshly men. We perceive, then, that by-and-by, if men 
live with patient continuance in well-doing, they shall have honor 
and glory. You only sow the seed here. You do not reap the 



NOVEMBER. 4fX 

remuneration here, but you live with, and toward, and among 
an invisible host that understands the law of excellence ; that 
understands how much more valuable are the higher traits and 
magnanimities than the lower ; that understands how much 
more noble and admirable are the things which the soul does 
than the things which the mind does, and how mijeh more noble 
and admirable are the things which the mind does than the 
things which the body does. All, therefore, which is hidden in 
obscurity in this world is reserved for disclosure in the world 
to come. 

A crowd of witnesses around 
Hold thee in full survey ; 

Forget the steps already trod, 
And onward urge thy way. 

Tis God's all-animating voice 

That calls thee from on high ; 
'Tis his own hand presents the prize 

To thine aspiring eye. 



NOVEMBER 1: MORNING. 

Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the 
whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a 
memorial of her. — Matt, xxvi., 13. 

As the wax taper burns in the temple by night, unconscious 
both of its own substance and of the light which it emits, go 
there be many persons who, in their humility, count themselves 
to be doing nothing in life, but who are diffusing the divinest in- 
fluences in every direction. Fidelity, disinterestedness in love, 
pure peacefulness, love of God, and faith in invisible things, can 
not exist in a man without having their effect upon his fellow- 
men. It is impossible that one should stand up in the midst 
of a community and simply be good, and not diffuse the influ- 
ence of that goodness on every side. 

And the reach is incalculable. I have heard persons say that 
they seemed to themselves to be doing nothing in life. No man 
and no woman who is faithfully following the Lord Jesus Christ 
can be said to be doing nothing. It is not the eloquent tongue 
that speaks the most. It is not the heroic action which men 
sound forth that is, after all, the most potential in the affairs 
of men. The symmetrical example of holy souls has a voice 



472 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

which sounds out further, and reaches forth a hand that is felt 
further than more positive and more declarative influences. 



NOVEMBER 1: EVENING. 

Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as 
I had pity on th$e 1—Matt. xviii., 33. 

Suppose God should treat us as we treat men, what would 
become of any one of us ? If he were strict to mark and to 
judge, to condemn and to punish, who of us could stand for 
one single moment ? We are the very men that are set forth 
in the parable of the unmerciful servant. Is it not so ? Are 
we not described in that parable? Are there not dangerous 
pitfalls that any of us may plunge into at an unguarded mo- 
ment ? You may not be liable, perhaps, to temptations of vio- 
lence, but then you may be liable to temptations of avarice. 
You may not be liable to temptations of dishonesty, but you 
may be liable to temptations of social hilarity. You may not 
be liable to drunkenness, but you may be liable to lewdness. 
You may not be tempted by any of the passions, but you may 
be tempted by that hard-hearted selfishness which makes the 
heart like the desert of Sahara — sand, sand, sand, without a 
green thing in it. Who is there that can rise up before God 
and say, "I have a right to condemn, for I have never sinned?" 
When God says, "I have found a ransom for sinners," who shall 
turn himself with bitter and vindictive fury upon transgressors ? 



NOVEMBER 2: MORNING. 
Ye are complete in him. — Colos. ii., 10. 

The word of the Lord comes to us in our bondage to the ani- 
mal appetites, in our bondage to opinions, in our bondage to 
carnal and secular pursuits, where we are all moping, and grop- 
ing, and looking down, and we are called to a higher life. We 
are called to more freedom in reason, to more freedom in moral 
sense, to more freedom in affection, to a wider, purer, finer, no- 
bler way of living. There is not one feeling in ten in your na- 
ture that you use. But God calls you to the whole of yourself. 



NOVJEMBEB. 473 

And the way to come to one's whole 'self is through a true 
Christian experience. A man who knows how to be a better 
husband, a better father, a better friend, and a better neighbor, 
is happier for it. A man who is called to a Christian life, and 
responds to the call, does business easier and more naturally. 
Whatever a man doe's, he can do better if he does it as a Chris- 
tian does it than if he does it as a man of the world does it. 
There is nothing that so helps a man in the discharge of the 
ordinary duties of life as harmonizing his whole self with the 
divine conception. 

In being called to a Christian life, then, we are called, not to 
circumscription nor to gloom, but to largeness, and power, and 
symmetry, and fineness, and fullness — in short, to beauty. Ev- 
ery man who becomes a Christian ought to seem more radiant 
than ever before. And he will, if he is living in a full under- 
standing of his privilege, and up to his privilege, or any where 
near it. For it does not require perfection to be handsome. 
A moss-rose bud is handsome before it blossoms. 



NOVEMBER 2: EVENING. 
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace. — Isaiah lv., 12. 

God can give grace to endure poverty, to thrive under hard- 
ships, to bear up under grief, and to pluck fruit from thorns, and 
flowers from weeds. But so, also, can God fill the heart of his 
people with a spirit that shall overflow and sanctify all busi- 
ness, all commerce, all learning, all art. The channels that are 
now filled with passions are to be emptied of them and filled 
with something better. 

We are not to seek to know how to enter the kingdom of 
heaven in sackcloth. We are not to eat in the wilderness lo- 
custs and wild honey. We are to sit at the King's table be- 
cause we are the King's sons. And the time is coming when 
men will be able, as it were, to sit at king's tables on earth, 
and bear honors, and be better for it, more sovereign in love, 
more mighty in purity and in truth, and more effectual in do- 
ing good to others. Joy, not sorrow, should be the key-note 
of our Christian experience. Sorrow is the medicine by which 
we come to it. I believe that, when the time of ripeness comes, 



474 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

it will be found that beauty and power are the only appropriate 
garments of piety. They have been stolen by the passions and 
the appetites, but they are to be worn in their fullest glory only 
by the highest sentiments that are in man. 



NOVEMBER 3: MORNING. 
Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain 
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. — Heb. iv., 16. 

" Let us, therefore," on account of these two things — first, 

God's sympathy ; and, second, God's perfect knowledge of all 

our wickednesses — " come boldly to the throne of grace" — and 

why ? " That we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in 

time of need." We go not to exonerate ourselves, not to plead 

our righteousness ; we go boldly, saying, " Thou knowest that 

I am sinful, but thou sentest thy Son to atone for sins; I am 

sick, but thou hast the medicine for souls that are sick ; I am 

wicked, but thou art he that delightest to forgive wickedness." 

We are to go boldly to God's throne, because he is so full of 

mercies for our want ; so full of goodness for our wickedness ; 

so full of forgiveness for our sins. And God's knowledge of 

what we are, and all we do, instead of being an argument for 

fear, is an argument for confidence. 

In every pang that rends the heart, 
The Man of Sorrows had a part ; 
He sympathizes with our grief, 
And to the sufferer sends relief. 

With boldness, therefore, at the throne, 
Let us make all our sorrows known, 
And ask the aids of heavenly power 
To help us in the evil hour. 



NOVEMBER 3: EVENING. 
Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my first-born.— Exod. iv., 22. 

I never, like to hear people speak of a religious or Christian 
life by its negatives — by its limitations, and restraints, and nec- 
essary pains and self-denials ; for, although at times there are 
struggles, and though there may be a proper mention of them, 
yet no man can consider what are the elements of a true faith, 
what are the promises and inspirations of God, without per- 



NOVEMBER. 475 

ceiving that those shadows are alternative, occasional, excep- 
tional states, and that the New Testament designs the Chris- 
tian man to be a child of light and joy. He is set free. He is 
adopted into the household of God. He is a friend, no longer 
a servant. He is an heir expectant, but is not, like many heirs, 
waiting until the bequeathed estate comes to him ; for he has 
the earnest of it sent before, as it were, to support him on the 
road to it. 



NOVEMBER 4: MORNING. 
Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; tout as the servants of Christ, doing 
the will of God from the heart. — Eph. vi., 6. 

I think it is affecting to see with what tenderness God has 
taken care of those that no one else cares for. How he goes 
down to the poor, and the ignorant, and the enslaved ! How 
he goes down to those that can find no motive whatsoever for 
right living in the ordinary flow of their experience, or the or- 
dinaiy action of their faculties, and says to them, " Serve, obey, 
be faithful, be industrious, be Christian-minded, if not for the 
sake of your Master, then for my sake !" It pleases God to 
stand behind every single duty that has in it no conceivable 
motive addressed to any of the normal human faculties, and 
say, " Consecrate that duty to me ; and, though you do not serve 
any body else in it, serve me in it." He puts exceeding great 
and precious promises on lower places of life in this way, and 
makes things attractive that otherwise would be unattractive ; 
for, once let us know that we are serving onewhom we love, and 
one who loves us, and love vanquishes difficulty. There are no 
obstacles too great for love to overcome. Is there any thing we 
can not do joyfully for Christ ? 



NOVEMBER 4: EVENING. 
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.— Rev. iii., 20. 

As one who returns to his dwelling in the night, after a jour- 
ney, and, finding it locked, knocks at the accustomed door of 
entrance in the front, and, getting no answer, goes to the door 
in the rear, then to the side door, if there be one, and then to 



476 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

every other door, in order, if possible, to get into his house, so 
Christ, who longs to enter into the soul, goes to every door in 
succession, and knocks, and listens for an invitation to come in, 
and leaves not one chamber in the soul-house unsought, or one 
door untried ! He knocks at the door of Reason ; at the door 
of Fear ; at the door of Hope ; at the door of Imagination and 
Taste ; of Benevolence and Love ; of Conscience ; of Memory 
and Gratitude. He does not neglect a single one. 

Beginning at the upper and the noblest, where he ought to 
come in as a King of Glory, through gates of triumph, he comes 
round and down to the last and lowest, and retreats wistfully 
and reluctantly, returning often, morning, noon, and night, con- 
tinually seeking entrance with marvelous patience, accepting 
no refusal, repulsed by no indifference to his presence, and no 
neglect of his message. 

If he be admitted, joy unspeakable is in the house, and shall 
be henceforth. The dreary dwelling is filled with light from 
the brightness of his countenance, and every chamber is per- 
fumed from the fragrance of his garments. Peace and hope, 
love and joy, abide in the house, for Christ himself takes up his 
abode therein. But if, after his long knocking at the door and 
patient waiting for entrance, his solicitation be refused or neg- 
lected, by-and-by there shall come a time when you who have 
denied him shall be denied of him ; for, when you shall knock 
at the gate of heaven for admittance into the mansions which 
he has prepared from the foundation of the world, he will say 
unto you, as you said unto him, Depart ! But that dreadful 
day has not yet come, and he still stands at the door, his locks 
wet with the dews of the morning, and waits to be invited into 
the chamber of your soul. Hear his voice once more, and yield 
to its gentle persuasion — " Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock ; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." 



NOVEMBER 5: MORNING. 
And I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither 
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. — John x., 28. 

You, dear Christian friends, who have just united yourselves 



NOVEMBER. 477 

with God's people, have entered a service the most blessed that 
can happen to the human heart in this world. Do not be dis- 
couraged because you find difficulties. You are not saints. 
But you have entered upon a service in which your Master is* 
gentler than your parents could be — a benignant Savior, a mag- 
nanimous Savior, an ever-present Savior, who is not ashamed of 
you, and will not be, whatever you do or wherever you go. Oh ! 
if any where the snare entangles your feet; if the net is thrown 
over you ; if you do wrong, and fall utterly prostrate, remem- 
ber, in your deepest penitence and anguish of sorrow, to hear 
the voice saying still, " My child, I am not ashamed of you." 
If you can not look in the face of man, look up into the face of 
God. There is more mercy there than there is in all the world 
besides. 

Never forget that you are the children of divine love. It is 
love that bore you. It is love that has brought you to these 
moods of penitence and these drawings toward a better life. 
It is love that will take care of you, even to the end — love bet- 
ter than the father's, better than the mother's, better than all 
earthly love. 

O gracious Shepherd, bind us 
With cords of love to thee, 

And evermore remind us 
How mercy set us free. 

"We are of our salvation 

Assured through thy love ; 
Yet oh, on each occasion, 

How faithless do we prove ! 

But thou wilt not forsake us, 

Though we are oft to blame ; 
Oh let thy love then make us 

Hold fast thy faith and name. 



NOVEMBER 5 : EVENING. 
He giveth grace unto the lowly. — Prov. iii., 34. 

The blossoms are not always on the tops of the trees. They 
are sometimes on the branches that are down near the ground. 
I have seen aunts, maiden sisters, plain sewing-women, those 
who were lowest in poverty, who stood with such erect, sweet r 
pure heavenly-mindedness, that it was worth one's while to 
look at them, to renew his own faith in himself. Sometimes I 



4*78 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

have heard these same people say that it was a mystery to 
them that God should have debarred them from the usefulness 
that they longed for; that they should have been made ob- 
scure; that they should have no tongue for speaking. Do you 
suppose that when a honeysuckle blossoms, and its fragrance 
goes abroad, it has any idea how far it goes ? It leaves the 
blossom, and the stem and vine know no more about it. It is 
wafted by the wind — it is sent through all the neighborhood, 
and the blossom does not know how it sheds its sweetness ev- 
ery where. It is unconscious. Do you suppose a candle in an 
eminent place knows how much light it sends out, or how many 
see it ? Do you suppose a star knows what is said about it ? 
It, too, is unconscious. And it is the unconsciousness of a sym- 
metrical Christian life and character that is its very richness 
and power. 



NOVEMBEBS: MOBNING. 

Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justi- 
fieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that 
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh inter- 
cession for us. — Rom. viii., 33, 34. 

What is a man's power? He has power to resolve. And 
what is the power of resolution ? It is the power of a bubble, 
which reflects for one instant the glory of heaven, and then is 
broken and gone. Our resolutions are good for a second, and 
then they are forgotten. What are men's throes and struggles 
against inward passions and outward temptations ? They are 
as nothing. We are swept before the evil influences which 
come upon us in this world as chaff before the summer's storm. 
We -are routed and driven as miserable, cowardly militia before 
courageous soldiers. 

When a man looks at his own state, and thinks "whether he 
shall be able to prevail and stand in Zion and before God, it is 
not at all wonderful that his courage fails him. But why 
should he think 'of himself? Why should he measure his 
chances of everlasting life merely by the slender forces that 
he can address to the work of salvation ? Have you no God ? 
Have you no Savior? Was it not for you that Calvary be- 



NOVEMBER. 479 

came memorable ? Was there one thought, was there one feel- 
ing, did one drop of blood fall to the ground on that "blessed 
mount in which you had no right, nor part, nor lot ? The treas- 
ure of Calvary is the birthright of every child who has come- 
into life since the death of Christ ; and all that was then mani- 
fested by God in word, or thought, or act, was but a feeble ex- 
pression of the unspeakable love that was behind it all. All 
that he did was for you. 

NOVEMBER 6: EVENING. 

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face : now I know 
in part ; but then shall I know even as also I am known.— 1 Cor. xiii., 12. 

You and I, Christian brethren, are coming — and that, too, 
very fast — to that hour when we shall behold, with wondrous 
disclosure, the glory and the beauty of him who, when once seen, 
shall never be lost again ; for it is said, " We shall go no more 
out." It is not long that you have to bear your cross. It is a 
short way, not to Calvary, but to the New Jerusalem, in which 
is no Calvary, but the Savior rather, who sanctified it. Heaven 
is waiting for you, and God is waiting for you. And when once 
death shall give that touch, from you shall dissolve all opacity 
of time and matter, and you shall behold him who, when once 
seen, shall shine upon you forever and forever with healing in 
his beams — an unsetting Sun in the heavenly land ; him whom 
John beheld in glory, and of whom he declared that he was the 
light of the heavenly land. 

Hold on, then, with patience ; bear, suffer, if you must, but 
irradiate your care and your suffering with the joy and the ex- 
pectancy of this near hour when you shall stand in Zion and 
before God. 

Soon — and forever 

Our union shall be 
Made perfect, our glorious 

Redeemer, in thee, 
When the sins and the sorrows 

Of time shall be o'e'r — 
Its pangs and its partings 

Eemembered no more ; 
When life can not fail, 

And when death can not sever, 
Christians with Christ shall be 

Soon — and forever. 



480 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



NOVEMBER 7: MORNING. 
Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. — Mark xiv., 38. 

Let others set their watch where they need it, and you set 
yours where you need it. Each man's watchfulness should be 
according to his temperament and constitution. And this is 
not all. Every man should know what are the circumstances, 
the times, and the seasons in which he is liable to sin. There 
are a great many who neglect to watch until the proper time 
and seasons for watching have passed away. Suppose your 
fault is of your tongue. Suppose your temper takes that as a 
means of giving itself air and explosion. With one man it is 
when he rises in the morning, and before breakfast, that he is 
peculiarly nervous and susceptible. It is then that he is irrita- 
ble, and things do not look right. It is then that his tongue, 
as it were, snaps, and throws off sparks of fire. With another 
man it is at evening, when he is jaded and wearied with the 
care and labor of the day. He has emptied himself of nervous 
excitement, and left only excitability, and then is the time 
when he is liable to bi*eak down in various ways. 

Men must set their watch at the time when the enemy is ac- 
customed to come. Indians usually make their attack at three 
or four o'clock in the morning, when men sleep soundest ; and 
that is the time to watch against Indians. There is no use of 
doing it at ten o'clock in the morning. They do not come then. 
If it be when you are sick that you are most subject to malign 
passions, then that is the time when you must set your watch ; 
or if it be when you are well that the tide of blood swells too 
feverishly in you, then that is the time when you must set your 
watch. If, at one time of the day more than another, experi- 
ence has shown that you are liable to be tempted, then in that 
part of the day you must be on your guard. 

NOVEMBER 7: EVENING. 

Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the 
first works.— Rev. ii., 5. 

If you have ever lived a religious life, and if you are, in a fee- 



NOVEMBER. 4 8 j 

ble manner, trying to eke out your old hope, let the past go, and 
seek at once the loving heart of the Savior. To-night, without 
for a moment dishonoring Christ's patience and goodness, say, 
" Let the dead bury their dead ; let the past suffice for the past ; 
now, Lord, for the future, for thee, and for life eternal, I will live, 
with thy help." Begin like a little child again, right where you 
stand. Throw away all excuses ; throw away all pride ; throw 
away all vanity ; throw away all shame ; throw every thing 
away that stands between you and your soul's highest good. 
There is nothing worthy of a man but to obey God, and to let 
the fullness of the divine blessing fill his heart as he obeys. 



NOVEMBER 8: MORNING. 
The glorious liberty of the children of God.— Rom. viii., 21. 

Whezst a man has risen to that state of love and hopefulness 
which breeds in him all divine sympathies and all human sym- 
pathies; when he has all diligent continuance in well-doing; 
when he has drilled himself so that he is gentle, and sweet- 
minded, and humble, and soft-voiced, and gracious, and charita- 
ble in consideration of other men's thoughts, and full of peace- 
fulness, and full of that disposition which bears cordial to other 
men ; when by the summer of love he is ripened into these 
things till he performs all kind offices without thinking — then 
he has risen to the state of spontaneity in Christian life. If you 
meet such a man, and ask him, " Do you do your duty ?" he will 
say, " Duties ? I do not know that I have any duties." When 
persons have come thoroughly into this stage, all holy exercises, 
all Christian graces, all activities and labors, all sufferings and 
trials, become first joyful, then spontaneous, and finally habit- 
ual. We pass into that state which we call the state of liberty, 
the state of adoption, of which the Scripture speaks. We are 
the children of God, and live at home, and are never afraid to 
see our Father's face, and are always glad to hear his voice. 
We dwell in his presence, and there is nobody that we love so 
much as we do him. We are children, and live at home, and 
have liberty. 

Hh 



482 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



NOVEMBER 8: EVENING. 

An inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, re- 
served in heaven for you. — 1 Peter i., 4. 

Many do not know where to get bread for to-morrow ; but 
bread from heaven, reached down by angel hands, waits for 
them to come' and pluck it. They are on their way to that 
land where want shall be no more known, except as a faint 
background of memory on which to portray, in various colors, 
their joy and ecstasy. They have treasures laid up in heaven, 
and God waits to bless them with the unexpected disclosure of 
their possessions. Thousands of men in this world live in sump- 
tuous houses who are good men. Thousands of men are rich 
in this world's goods who are richer in the things of the king- 
dom of God. But how blessed shall be the waking of the poor, 
who have suffered want, and neglect, and abuse here, when they 
come to the full possession of those higher treasures which shall 
not be taken from them ! There remaineth a rest for the people 
of God. The treasures of the soul are never stolen, or worn out, 
or wasted, or abated ; they are sure, they are unspeakably great 
in the beginning, and they augment forever and forever. 

Jerusalem the glorious, the glory of the elect ! 

Oh dear and future vision, that eager hearts expect, 

Even now by faith I see thee ; even here thy walls discern ; 

To thee my thoughts are kindled, and strive, and pant, and yearn. 

Oh sweet and blessed country, shall I ever see thy face ? 
Oh sweet and blessed country, shall I ever win thy grace ? 
Exult, oh dust and ashes, the Lord shall be thy part ; 
His only, his forever thou shalt be, and thou art. 



NOVEMBER 9: MORNING. 

He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk even as he 
walked. — 1 John ii., 6. 

There should be no cause for doubt that you are a Christian. 
A man is bound to live toward his country so that there shall 
be no mistake about his patriotism. If he lives so that his pa- 
triotism is suspected, he is guilty. "You are bound to live 
toward God so that in some way men shall see that you are his 



NOVEMBER. 483 

children." The apostle declared of Christians, " Ye are our 
epistles, read and known of all men." Many men attempt, 
partly through ignorance, partly by reason of carelessness, and 
partly on account of too low an estimate of the sacredness of 
their religious obligations, to serve God with their right hand 
and Mammon with their left ; and men see it, and they doubt 
such half-hearted Christians. And that is not the worst of it — 
they doubt God, they doubt Christ, they doubt the reality of 
religion. No man, therefore, has a right to allow any mistake 
to exist in the matter of his Christian character. 

You need to examine yourself thoroughly to settle these 
questions : " Where is my allegiance ? Am I with God and for 
God supremely? Does my desire to live in conformity with 
his will control all my other desires, or am I with the world, 
and is my allegiance rendered to that ?" 

NOVEMBER 9: EVENING. 
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath 
loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through 
grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work. — 2 
Thess.il, 16, 17. 

This passage is a revelation of God's disposition. " Now our 
Lord Jesus Christ himself." That is much, but there is more — 
" and God." And then, as if that word God would not be fruit- 
ful in our imagination — "even our Father." That draws him 
very near. And as if the word Father, as applied to a Being 
who has such an immense family — the universe — were not 
enough, the apostle still qualifies it — " which hath loved us." 
And as if that declaration would require still farther opening, 
he adds, " and hath given us everlasting consolation and good 
hope through grace ;" breaking away the misty horizon, and 
giving us to see the whole sweep and strength of the coming 
life. But, as that is something afar off, the apostle seems to go 
back again, and show, that not alone this future glory, but some- 
thing nearer and more personal, is given. " Now our Lord Je- 
sus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved 
us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope 
through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every 
good word and work." 



484 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

If a man is comforted in his very heart, and if he is estab- 
lished in every " word" and in every " work," what more can 
he have ? What more can a man ask than a revelation which 
brings the Lord Jesus Christ near to him as his personal Friend, 
and God as his Father, with the promise in his hand of immor- 
tality and glory ; hope through grace being brought in to com- 
fort him in the very source of his feelings, his heart, and to give 
hiin that comfort not as a mere luxury, but in such a way that 
it shall establish him in the whole of his life — in all that he 
speaks, all that he purposes, and all that he does? 



NOVEMBER 10: MORNING. 
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself. — Prov. xxii., 3. 

You might just as well attempt to let the spark fall upon the 
powder, and then take care of the powder, as to let temptation 
fall upon the passions, thinking that then you can bind them. 
Beforehand or never ! No repentance does you any good that 
does not prepare you by watchfulness to resist temptation. 
Very little is done, if one sins through the passions, by simply 
praying, and asking to be forgiven. That is well in its way ; 
but as a preventive, unless it inspires a man to inquire how 
he felt, and what was the way in which the enemy approached, 
and prepares him for the approach again, no repentance is of 
any practical use. Passions are snares; and the way to extract 
a man's self from snares is not to be caught in them. Passions 
are lions in ambush ; and the way to deliver one's self from the 
lions is to take another path, and go where they are not. Pas- 
sions are dangerous, like pitfalls, like precipices. It is not safe 
to get near them. You are safe if you give them a wide berth. 
You do not know that you are safe if you do not. And who is 
he that has not passions ? They are the overmastering part in 
many natures. They swell as the tides swell. They burn as 
the fires burn. They sweep as storms and winds sweep. No 
man can perform his duty to himself — certainly not to his God 
— who does not understand that the battle of the passions is 
one which must be watched. It is a battle in which watchful- 
ness is wisdom. 



NOVEMBER. 485 



NOVEMBER 10: EVENING. 

My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning : 
I say, more than they that watch for the morning. — Psalm cxxx., 6. 

How many persons are there who, when they have done the 
best they can do for their children, are able to stand over their 
incomplete work and say, "I wait upon God?" When your 
child, breaking away from restraint, moves off' upon the rough 
waters, you stand upon the shore watching the skiff as it re- 
cedes ; and, after it has disappeared from your view, you wait 
till it reappears, and the storm-driven child, repentant, seeks 
safety by your side. There are many parents whose children 
have gone astray, and who can not see them coming back for 
the tears they shed ; and how many under such circumstances 
can say, " My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that 
watch for the morning ?" 

' You know what the figure is. It is of a sentinel who at night 
walks backward and forward, and, tired and faint, longs for 
relief and rest, and watches anxiously for the morning, as senti- 
nel parents watch for the day when there shall be a dawn of 
hope upon their children. Or is it of the watcher of a fevered 
patient, who wearily passes the night in the sick-room, and 
watches, as star after star arises above the horizon, for the 
morning star to appear, often going to the window that he may 
catch the first glimpse of the dawn of day ? When weary with 
watching, and yearning to see the coming day, you look toward 
the east, just as the darkness begins to break away, nothing is 
more beautiful than the gray, pearly dawn. The coming day 
for our offspring is waited for more anxiously than morning to 
the watcher, the sentinel, or the stormed mariner. 

As those that watch for the day, 

And know that the day will rise, 
Though the weary hours delay, 

As they pass under midnight skies ; 
Though the Sun of Righteousness 

Only Faith's eye can see, 
Because thou hast promised to bless, 

Lord Jesus, I wait for thee. 



486 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

NOVEMBER 11: MORNING. 

Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and 
maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. — 2 Corinth. 
ii., 14. 

Give me the men, and I will write a Commentary on the 
Bible that will not need any explanation, for most Commenta- 
ries are more troublesome than the Bible which they are de- 
signed to explain. I will put them, not in the sanctuary on 
the Sabbath, but at home, in the street, in their neighborhood, 
in all the intricacies of business — every where ; and no matter 
where they may be, they shall be a savor of Christ, sweet as 
the odor of blossoms. They shall be garden-men that have 
some flowers for every month, and that are always fragrant 
and redolent of blossom and fruit. Give me a hundred such 
men, and I will defy the infidel world. I will take and bind 
them into a living volume, and with them I will make the 
world believe. After a long age of religious corruption, and 
hollow- heartedness, and outside observance, and filling the 
empty air with empty words, and neglecting the weightier 
matters of the law, there comes a man like Luther — all the 
corruptions of the Church are forgotten, and men, looking on 
him, say, "There is truth in religion after all." One Luther is 
enough to qualify a hundred years' growth of infidels and hyp- 
ocrites. Now give me a hundred men — not men who are glow- 
ing while they sing and heavenly while they pray, though I 
would have them so, but men that are, morning, and noon, and 
night, born of God, and that so carry the savor of Christ that 
men coming into their presence say "There is a Christian 
here," as men passing a vintage say " There are grapes here" 
— give me a hundred such men, and I will make the world be- 
lieve. I do not ask to be shown the grape-vine in the woods 
in June before I will believe it is there. I know that there are 
grapes near when the air is full of their odor ; and the question 
under such circumstances always is, "Where is the vine?" and 
never " What is it that I smell ?" You are to be a savor of 
love, and peace, and gentleness, and gratitude, and thanksgiv- 
ing, so that wherever you go the essence of the truth that is in 
you shall go out to men. 



NOVEMBER. 437 



NOVEMBER 11: EVENING. 

The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. 
— Prov. xvi.,33. 

One person says, " If I had known, I never would have taken 
that journey. My child never was well afterward. And I might 
have known. I was cautioned by my neighbors." 

Another says, "I ought not to have had that physician. If I 
had taken the other doctor, I think I might have had my child 
with me now." 

Another says, " The child dropped off between two o'clock 
and four, just when I was asleep, though I slept but ten min- 
utes. It was wi*ong for me to go to sleep at all. If I had been 
awake, and if I had stimulated the child just at the time when 
it began to run down, it probably would have rallied. But 
when I awoke it was too late, and the child died. If I could 
only — " If, if, iff These ifs are dragon's teeth to most men. 

Now, did not you do all that you could ? Did not you do 
the best that you knew how ? Did not your heart prompt you 
to do every thing in your power ? Did not you bring all that 
God gave you to that hour ? Even if you made a mistake, are 
we not permitted to make mistakes ? All men make mistakes. 
If we were omniscient and omnipotent, it would have been dif- 
ferent. But we are finite, peccable creatures. You did the best 
you could. Why not, therefore, shut up that chapter of expe- 
rience, and let it go ? Why mourn and carry heavy griefs on 
account of the troubles of the past ? It is not wise. 



NOVEMBER 12: MORNING. 
Continuing instant in prayer. — Rom. xii., 12. 

Peayee is to be not merely the ascription of praise to God, 
not merely the recognition of the greater truths of theology 
and of the moral realm, bat the offering of our minds to God 
in their greatness and in their littleness — in all that relates to 
them. It is communion ; it is commerce of thought and com- 
merce of feeling ; it is a child coming home to the father's feet, 
and standing there to speak, as a child has a right to speak to 



48S MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

a father, of great things and of little things, of all things. And 
the moment you take this more comprehensive view of prayer, 
that very moment you perceive that one need not say, with set 
purpose, " Our Father," hut that every glancing thought be- 
comes an act of prayer. For prayer is intercourse. It is sun- 
ning some thought or feeling in the light of God's face. It is 
a recognition of the presence of God. It is the habit of moving 
one's thoughts toward God. It is making every thing you do, 
under all circumstances, suggest God more or less, and carry 
you easily where he is. Prayer that does this is the highest 
prayer. 

NOVEMBER 12: EVENING. 

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also ; knowing that tribula- 
tion worketh patience ; and patience, experience ; and experience, hope ; and 
hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. — Rom. v., 3-5. 

In the sultry insect-breeding days of summer, how insects 
abound ! Every tree is a harbor for stinging pests. Wherever 
you sit, they swarm around and annoy you, and destroy your 
peace and comfort. By-and-by there come those vast floods 
of clouds that bring tornadoes, and that are thunder-voiced ; 
and up through the valleys, and over the hills and mountains, 
sweep drenching and cleansing rains. And when the storm 
has ceased, and, the clouds are gone, and you sit under the 
dripping tree, not a fly, not a gnat, not a pestilent insect is to 
be seen. The winds and rains have driven them all away. 

Has it never been so with those ten thousand little pests of 
pride, and vanity, and envying, and jealousy, and unlawful de- 
sire, that for days have teased and fretted you, and kept you 
busy with conscience, and taste, and affection, and all the high- 
er faculties, until God sent upon you some great searching sor- 
row, some overwhelming trouble ? There was that babe, that 
lived in your heart ; and God laid heart and babe together in 
the grave. He subverted your household. He brought on you 
such torrents of suffering that it seemed as though the founda- 
tions of the great deep were broken up. And in those hours 
he graciously sustained you, and lifted you up toward himself, 
so that, although you suffered unutterable affliction, you felt 



NOVEMBER. 489 

that it had cleansed you from jealousies, envies, vanity, pride 
— the whole swarm of venomous and stinging insects that had 
beset you. It is a blessed thing to have such hours of vision, 
and such fruits of them. 

For all the warnings that have come 

From mortal agony or death ; 
For even that bitterest storm of life 

Which drove me on the rock of faith ; 

For even that fearful strife, where sin 
Was conquered and subdued at length, 

Temptatiofts met and overcome 

Whereby my soul has gathered strength ; 

For all the past I thank thee, God ; 

And for the future trust in thee, 
Whate'er of trial or blessing yet, 

Asked or unasked, thou hast for me. 



NOVEMBER 18: MOBNING. 
Ye can not serve God and mammon.— Matt, vi., 24. 

Eveey one knows by his own experience that there are some 
states of mind which preclude others. A man can not be mirth- 
ful and angry at the same time. The mind is. apparently made 
with antagonistic passions, and if one is in ascendency, its op- 
posite is in depression, always. No man can be saturated with** 
pride, and have any discernment of those spiritual truths which 
turn on humility. No man can be filled with sensuous passions 
from day to day, and yet know any thing about the truths of 
disinterestedness, and pure, true, spiritual friendship. No man 
can live from day to day in the spirit of self-indulgence, and 
yet have any conception of what Christ meant when he said, 
" Take up the cross and follow me." No man can live in a 
spirit of grasping selfishness, and yet have any conception of 
affluent benevolence. If you are living in the indulgence of the 
lower passions of your nature, it is impossible for you to see 
any truths except those which are colored by those passions. 
No mechanical obstruction could be more effectual than this 
moral obstruction. In the very nature of things, where lower 
passions fill the mind, the soul is blind to higher moral elements. 
In the very nature of the case, the service of mammon pre- 
cludes the service of God. 



490 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



NOVEMBER 13: EVENING. 

Why are ye so fearful ? How is it that ye have no faith ? — Mark iv., 40. 

There are a great many persons whose conscience is edu- 
cated to watch over them, so that it becomes the torment of 
their life. They are always afraid they will make a mistake. 
They are forever on the doubtful edge of fear and hope. They 
are never able to say, " I know that my Jledeemer liveth." And 
even if they have moments of triumph, they are like flowers that 
are exposed to an uneven temperature. If they have plants of 
righteousness, they are like early vegetables that have no set- 
tled summer. They lose all the seed sown in early periods. 

Now, if there is any meaning in the promises of Scripture, 
God's mercy is comprehensive. Of all the conditions of human 
experience, he knows the end from the beginning. He under- 
takes to convey you safely through life, who put your trust in 
him. 

When you take passage for England in a ship, the shipmaster 
does not merely undertake to carry you so long as the water is 
smooth and you are within sight of the shore — he undertakes 
to carry you by day and by night, through calms and through 
*%torrqs, until he lands you on the other side. This he undertakes 
to do ; but he may fail to do it through human weakness. But 
God has made his Word stancher than any ship, and if you 
put your feet on that, you are in a bark which no tempest shall 
whelm or shipwreck. No matter what temptations may betide 
you, it is able to bear you safely through them. Wherever you 
may be, so long as you have the Word of God for your support, 
you need have no fear. Whatever may be your changes, noth- 
ing changes God, and his promises give you a right to feel that 
you will be taken care of, and that to the end. 



NOVEMBER 14: MORNING. 
Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. — Psalm 
xcvi., 3. 

Much of the want of faith in the promises of Christ comes 
from a neglect on the part of Christians to bear witness to the 



NOVEMBER. 491 

fulfillment of those promises in their own experience. You 
have been in emergencies when it seemed as though an earth- 
quake were shaking your foundations from under you, and you 
caught hold of some of the promises of God, and they held you 
up and comforted you, and you have never borne witness to 
their sustaining power in the prayer-meetings, at the confer- 
ence-meetings, or elsewhere. There are hundreds of men whose 
life God has made significant and memorable, and they have 
never uttered a word about it to those around them. Many 
and many a time God has brought you out of great trouble, 
when you have made no mention of his mercy and goodness to 
any one. God's promises are not enough talked of. If all the 
blessings that men are conscious of having had, in fulfillment 
of God's promises, should receive tongue, this city would be 
like the New Jerusalem for shoutings and praises. Too many 
witnesses of God's goodness in his promises are silent witnesses. 



NOVEMBER 14: EVENING. 
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. — Prov. viii., 13. 

It is unregulated anger that is wicked. But anger toward 
evil, because it is evil, is right. Anger that works with God 
and toward God, because it is inspired by God, is right. But 
be careful that you do not indulge in passion, and call that in- 
dignation. Be careful that you do not indulge in cruel angerj 
and excuse yourself by saying, " The Bible tells me to be an- 
gry." See to it that your force-giving feelings are subordinate 
to your moral sentiments, and that they work toward that 
which God works toward. Love that which God loves, and 
hate that which he hates. If you are going to walk with 
Christ you must have the spirit of Christ, and he loves no 
man can tell how much. You must walk in the spirit of this 
love. But God abhors iniquity. It is said that his anger burns 
to the lowest hell. We can not interpret this mystic sentence. 
We can not know what is the fierceness of the indignation of 
the soul of God when it flames out against meanness and un- 
truth, and injustice and wickedness. If you love the Lord you 
must partake of this spirit. You must have some of these di- 
vine elements of love and hate, though you can not have the 



492 HORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

full measure of either. They are apparently discordant, but 
they are perfectly consistent one with the other, and you must 
reconcile them in the harmony of a Christian life. 



NOVEMBER 15: MORNING. 
Watch thou in all things.— 2 Tim. iv., 5. 

Do you say that vigilance and watching are painful ? In one 
sense they are a crown of thorns ; but as the crown of thorns 
which Christ wore carried in them the salvation of the world, 
so these are floral wreaths to those who understand them. If 
it be love of God, if it be love of Christ, if it be the soul's hun- 
ger for heaven, that actuate us, it is not hard to be vigilant. 
For a man who does not'want to be vigilant it is hard ; but for 
a man who has enough of manhood in him to recognize his im- 
mortality, and to feel drawn upward ; for a man who feels that 
there are waiting for him crowns of glory and the companion- 
ship of God, the Judge of all, and of Christ, the Savior of all — 
for such a man it is not hard. And if it is hard for any of you, 
remember that all our vigilance is the vigilance of God-watched 
children. 

We only wait, as sinners, till the glad birthday 
Shall crown us kings before our Father's throne : 

As princely exiles here, we struggle, toil, and pray, 
With eyes by watching very weary grown. 



NOVEMBER 15: EVENING. 

Being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them 
that obey him. — Heb. v., 9. 

We are not of this world, as the flowers are that spring up, 
and perish, and are known no more. Rising higher than all 
things which thou hast made, we are destined for thy kingdom 
above. For us is a life beyond. We are planted here ; trans- 
planted there; growing that we may grow better hereafter; 
prepared for our fruit ; for all that endless expansion and glory 
of being which the eye hath not seen, which the ear hath not 
heard, and which it hath not entered into the heart of man to 
conceive. And yet how great is the way through which we 



N0VE2IBEB. 493 

are passing toward our own selves ! We behold our manhood 
in the royalty of Christ. Thou, oh Jesus, wert the only perfect 
man that the earth has ever seen, and though thou art God 
thou art man. In thee we behold the stature of the perfect- 
ness of manhood. To that we aspire. Through passions, 
through temptations, through defilements, through darkness, 
through weakness, through mortal hinderances, we are pressing 
toward it. We have not reached it yet. We see it afar off. 
It goes down. As the lights sink when the ship is storm-tossed, 
so, often, our guiding star is lost. The light by which we steer 
is gone. And yet it comes again, and through storm and 
through night we press forward that w T e may reach this mark ; 
that we may come to this prize ; that we may inherit our high 
calling-. 



NOVEMBER 16: MORNING. 

In every thing, by prayer and supplication, vrith thanksgiving, let your re- 
quests be known unto God. — Phil, iv., 6. 

Theee is not a thing that touches you in any way, or con- 
cerns your welfare, that you may not make mention of to God. 
Go to him with all your needs, with all your fears, with all your 
hopes, with all your memories, and with all your mistakes. If 
you are disposed to dwell on one theme, do it ; if not, do not 
feel that you must. There is liberty for you, because you are 
God's child, to go often, and to speak much or little ; and if you 
can not speak at all, sit in silence. You are called unto liber- 
ty; and the liberty of prayer, the joy of prayer, the strength 
of prayer, and the hope of prayer are yours ; and if the prayer 
to which you have been accustomed has brought no hope, no 
strength, no joy, no liberty to you, try the other kind. You 
have prayed too long; you have prayed too much; you have 
prayed in the wrong way, it may be. Begin now to pray of 
things that are real to you, and you will find blessings to flow 
in upon you. And if you can pray but little in words, remem- 
ber that aspiration is prayer, that interjection is prayer. Pray- 
ers are like single words in the sentence of the clay, and the 
smallest word is a icord. 



494 



MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



NOVEMBER 16: EVENING. 
Be not a terror unto me : thou art my hope in the day of evil. — Jer. xvii., 17. 

When you are disappointed or vexed, or hedged in or thwart- 
ed, when you are seemingly abandoned, remember, son of God, 
heir of heaven, that you are being prepared for the higher life. 
You need courage, patience, perseverance, and that is the way 
to develop them. You need faith, and you never will have it 
unless you are brought to circumstances in which you are com- 
pelled to act by the invisible rather than by the visible. You 
need those Christian graces of which the Bible speaks and of 
which the pulpit preaches ; and practical life, with its various 
vicissitudes, is God's school in which you are to acquire these 
things. 

Do not be discouraged, then, nor cast down. When you are 
bestead, remember that God is dealing with you as a good 
school-master. Though he be a severe one, you will thank him 
for his severity by-and-by. When God is dealing with you in 
the cradle and in the crib, in the chest and in the till, in ambi- 
tions and in strifes, do not accuse him. Do not cry out, " Why 
hast thou forsaken me ?" Remember that to those who are ex- 
ercised thereby God shows his love and his fatherhood. Bow 
yourselves meekly to the chastisements of God, and study, not 
how you can get away from trouble, but how you can rise above 
trouble by being made better by it. 



NOVEMBER 17: MORNING. 

All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory pal- 
aces, whereby they have made thee glad.— Psalm xlv., 8. 

He who is a good man at home is a good man abroad. Xo 
man can carry the sun in a dark lantern. A man whose heart 
is really radiant can not help showing it every where — in the 
car, on the stage-coach, on the prairies, in the distant mine, or 
on the sea. 

I go into my garden and collect a handful of fragrant leaves 
and blossoms— this leaf of geranium, and that leaf of sweet- 
scented verbena ; this blossom of mignonnette, and that bios- 






NOVEMBER. 495 

som from yonder bush — and carrying them in my hand, in a 
thoughtful mood, at last I put them heedlessly in my pocket. 
I go into my house, and instantly the little prattler comes run- 
ning about me and says, "What have you got?" "I have got 
nothing," I say. Presently my friends come around me, saying, 
" You have a perfume about you." I can not keep the secret. 
It will out. These fragrant leaves and blossoms that I carry 
concealed from view send out fragrance so that every body 
knows that I have some sweet-smelling substance about me. 

A man who has really trained his heart in friendship and en- 
riched his affections, so that he is generous and noble, can not 
keep it secret. The fragrance of it will diffuse itself, whether 
he wants to have it or not. It will go wherever he goes, and 
make itself manifest. 

NOVEMBER 17: EVENING. 
The impotent man answered Mm, Sir, I have no man, when the water is 
troubled, to put me into the pool ; hut while I am coming, another steppeth 
down before me. — John v. , 7. 

Does God say, " Repent of your sins, and forsake them all, 
and come to me, and then I will help you ?" I am not pre- 
pared to say that that would not be worthy of everlasting 
thanksgiving in heaven, but I will say that if God will not 
take a man till he has repented of his sins, and rid himself of 
them, there will not be one in heaven to know whether it will 
be a cause for gratitude or not ; for, although we need God's 
help under every possible circumstances, the time when we 
need it most is when we are trying to break away from wick- 
edness. When one is doing wrong, and trying to do right, is 
the time when he needs the most encouragement. The time 
when the child needs the most leniency is when it is doing 
wrong, and is under the parent's discipline. And when men 
need God most is when, conscious of their wickedness and ill 
desert, they are striving to become better. For God to say, 
" Reform thyself, cleanse thyself, purify thyself, and then come 
hither, and thou shalt find a place reserved for thee" — that 
might be something ; out every soul penetrated with a sense 
of want and wickedness would fall down and say, " O God, 
there is no help for me in my misery and wretchedness if thou 



496 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

dost not come and uphold me." Like the man that waited for 
the troubling of the pool, if asked, "Wilt thou be made whole ?" 
he would say, " I have no man, when the water is troubled, to 
put me into the pool ; but while I am coming, another steppeth 
down before me." There must be a Savior that shall say to 
him, as Jesus said to that man, "Rise; take up thy bed and 
walk." 



NOVEMBER 18: MORNING. 

Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. 
— John xiii., 1. 

"Who can conceive what the love of Christ must be ? It is 
only when you take a mother's or a father's love, and add to 
that the love of another mother or father, and go on augment- 
ing its volume till you have given it infinite proportions, and 
then call it Christ, your Lord and your God, and then think of 
what he did on earth — how he came to dwell with you, to teach 
you, to bear your sins, to die for you, and to lift himself up 
through death and the grave, triumphant, that he might never 
forget you, and how, with a faithfulness that puts to shame all 
your earthly faithfulness, he waits, and yearns, and loves — it is 
only when a man gets such a conception of Christ as that, one 
thus full of overflowing love and all its ministrations, that he 
begins to take courage and say, "I shall grow; I am imperfect ; 
I fall into mistakes every day ; but he that loves me has such 
amplitude of love that he will keep me from going utterly 
astray; I am weak, and every day I find myself stumbling, 
and doing wrong through pride, and vanity, and selfishness ; 
but my schoolmaster is patient, and is waiting for me. He 
punishes me, and I am glad of it ; he makes me suffer, and I 
am glad of it ; but by his patience and love he will bring me 
through, and I shall triumph at last." 

"Himself hath done it" all ! Oh how those words 
Should hush to silence every murmuring thought ! 

Himself hath done it — he who loves me best, 

He who my soul with his own blood hath bought. 

"Himself hath done it!" Can it then be aught 

Than full pi wisdom, full of tenderest love ? 
Not one unheeded sorrow will he send 

To teach this wandering heart no more to rove. 



NOVEMBER. 497 



And when, in his eternal presence bless'd, 
I at his feet my crown immortal cast, 

I'll gladly own, with all his ransomed saints, 
' ' Himself hath done it" all, from first to h 



NOVEMBER 18: EVENING. 
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacri- 
fice : for I am not come to call the righteous, hut sinners to repentance. — Mat- 
thew ix.,13. 

Are you willing to take upon yourself, through sympathy, 
something of the suffering of those about you ? Unless you 
are, you are not of Christ. " I will have mercy, and not sacri- 
fice." That is a very solemn enunciation. Sacrifice is worship. 
You may pray devout prayers, you may sing sweet hymns with 
rapture, you may rejoice in all the peacefulness of the Sabbath 
well observed, you may be a religious man, and yet you may 
not have mercy ; men may perish about you, and you be indif- 
ferent ; works of beneficence may be going on under your eye, 
and you have no part or lot in them. It is possible for a man 
to be a religious man and not a Christian. To be a Christian, 
a man must have that spirit which led Christ to give himself 
to be a ransom for the world, and he must carry his life so as 
to be a perpetual benefaction to others. To be Christ-like in 
these regards is to be a Christian. 



NOVEMBER 19: MORNING. 
The beauty of holiness.— 2 Chron. xx., 21. 

I believe it is possible for men to be in this world harmo- 
nious, brave, noble, and beautiful. It costs some trouble, but it 
is worth all it costs a thousand times over. And we are called 
to it. When men tell me that this life is to be poor in order 
that the other one may be rich, I deny it. It is not so. If we 
are only willing to be rich and beautiful in the right place, in 
the right way, and in the right elements, then this life calls for 
riches and beauty. 

We are not true enough Christians to make folks want to be 
like us. We do not live high enough. We are not beautiful 
enough. But Christ says to every one of us, " Plant. Let all 
Ii 



498 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

sweet graces come up in you. Let them blossom. Let there 
be something for every month of the year. Let the twining 
vines and the trees hang low with fruit. Let the whole garden 
be filled with fragrance and beauty, that men, seeing your good 
things — your blossoms and fruit — shall glorify your Father 
which is in heaven." That is the way we ought to live, but 
alas ! alas ! it is not the way many of us do live. 



NOVEMBER 19: EVENING. 
Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance. — Matt, iii., 8. 

Upon the trunk of a huge tree, where a branch has been 
broken off by the wind, decay sets in. Little by little the in- 
fection makes its way inward, and the worms help on the work 
of destruction. At length the husbandman, looking at the fall- 
ing fragments, says, " That should be attended to ; unless it is, 
the weather will soon destroy the tree." But other business 
wiles him, and he forgets it till he makes the circuit of his 
orchard the next spring, when he says, " There ! I meant to at- 
tend to that, and it slipped my mind ; but I will do it now." 
But, as before, other business draws his attention from it, and 
before another spring comes round, in the midst of a violent 
storm the tree falls to the ground, when he says, " There ! I 
have lost my tree because I did not attend to it." 

Are there no branches broken off from you ? Are there no 
spots on your character where infection has commenced the 
woi'k of destruction ? Can you not look back upon duties that 
touch the marrow of manhood, that take hold on time and 
stretch forward to eternity, but that you have neglected ? 
How many times has God said to you, " It is time for thee to 
adjust thy accounts and cleanse thy ways?" Many a time in 
the watches of the night you have thought of your improper 
life ; and many a time in the tranquillity of a Sabbath morning 
you have thought of your childhood, and your mother and father 
have seemed to be with you again, and often when you have 
been thinking of these things a tear has fallen from your eye 
which nobody but God could interpret. You have looked at 
your state sentimentally, but have you taken steps toward 
reformation ? Have you solidified volition ? If so, where are 



NOVEMBER. 499 

the proofs that you have changed ? Where is the conduct that 
betokens change in you ? Where are the " fruits meet for re- 
pentance ?" 



NOVEMBER 20: MORNING. 

If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. — Rom. viii.,9. 

No man has attained to such a state that he has a right to 
call himself a Christian until he begins to see, and others begin 
to see, that there is in him, in his life, in his disposition, and in 
his conduct, such a resemblance to Christ that when men see 
him they think of the Savior. We are to take the traits mani- 
fested by the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the spirit of these traits 
we are to fashion our own characters. Then we are to stand 
before men, known as Christians, not because we are in the 
Church, not because we are observant of the customs of the 
Church, but because, wherever we go, we exemplify the spirit 
of Christ. We are called to the putting on of a state of heart 
and disposition which shall make us, in our sphere and accord- 
ing to the measure of our might, like our dear Master, Jesus 
Christ. 

How sweet a thing, then, it is to be permitted to be a Chris- 
tian ! If Christianity is a reality to our thought, if we are sat- 
isfied that there is nothing better for us in this life or in the 
life to come than to be imbued with the spirit of Christ, and if 
we are conscious of becoming more and more like him, then 
how sweet a thing it is to attempt to be a Christian ! Some 
persons seem to think that becoming a Christian is like walk- 
ing into unexplored caves that have small entrances, that are 
very dark and very damp, and that are divided into dismal,, 
gloomy apartments filled with all manner of things that are^ 
disagreeable. But to become a Christian is to go up toward 
the centre of all glory ; it is to become like Christ himself. 

NOVEMBER 20: EVENING. 
There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God. — Heb. iv.,9. 

Far beyond our knowledge and reach, and in contrast with 
all that we deal with in this life, there is that most glorious rest 



500 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

remaining. Almost nothing remains in this world. Nations 
do not remain ; they have been ground up again and again. 
Cities do not ; they have been overturned till their very sites 
are questionable. The most triumphant monuments of art have 
been crumbled and wasted. Things that once were centres of 
the world's admiration and worship are gone. Who can tell 
where Minerva is, that took the sun first and took the sun last 
on the Acropolis? "Who knows where Phidian Jove is, that 
men thought it unfortunate to die without seeing ? Who can 
tell what became of it or who destroyed it ? Who can tell 
where the stateliest temples are ? The pomp of those days in 
which these things existed is gone, and only rude fragments 
and heaps of stone remain to tell the story of their greatness. 
Castles are wasted. Even the mountains are gradually wear- 
ing away. The earth itself seems to be changing, changing 
all the time. But there is a rest that remaineth — a rest that 
time only fortifies, and preserves undiminished, unmarred, un- 
removed, anchored in the eternal sphere firmer than the island 
in the ocean that the waves beat upon — a rest that remaineth 
for the people of God. 

All glories of this earth decay, 
In smoke and ashes pass away, 

Nor rock nor steel can last ; 
What here gives pleasure to our eyes, 
What we as most endearing prize, 

Is but an airy dream that fadeth fast. 

Ah ! well for him whose trust is here ; 
Built on the rock, he need not fear 

Time's changes and decay ; 
Though he may fall, he yet shall stand 
Forever in the unchanging land, 

For very Strength itself shall be his stay. 



NOVEMBER 21: MORNING. 
The Lord God is my strength.— Hab. iii., 19. J 

If you try to live by the manhood that is in you, you will 
by-and-by come out humbled. You may try a thousand times, 
but you never will come into a true manhood until the Spirit 
of God helps you. You are too weak, you are too wicked, you 
are too ignorant, you are too strongly bound by habit. But 



NOVEMBEB. 501 

there is that great daylight over your head. There is the 
great loving heart of God. Oh, that great love of God, which 
sounds in the heaven as the ocean sounds upon the earth ; that 
great love of God, which stretches abroad through the universe 
as the air encompasses this whole globe — that is the secret 
power of this whole realm, and it hungers for you and waits 
for you. 

Open your heart to this love. Confess your poverty, your 
selfishness, and your lowness of life. Ask God to lift you up 
into your true manhood. He will hear your prayer, and will 
not wait till you come very near to him before he comes to you. 



NOVEMBER 21: EVENING. 
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. — Psalm xvii., 15. 

God has created us royally. No other thing is created with 
such powers and with such developments of them all. Nor is 
there before any other creature upon the earth open such a fu- 
ture as there is open before us ; such growth in every part of the 
mind; such richness a*id refinement, and such promise of com- 
munion with spirits above and with God. We are not of the 
clod, though we are born of the dust. We are not of the animal 
creation, though to us there is given an animal body. We are 
to gain, triumphantly, a growth out of it, and above it, and be- 
yond it. We are to come into communion with God. The 
foreshadowing is already upon us. The earlier experiences are 
upon us. What is the wonder of the meaning, what is the mag- 
nitude of that communion, we can not comprehend. It is our 
folly to believe that we can reason of these higher things, and 
know of them from the light of revelation and the slender light 
of experience; but they surpass knowledge. We see at the 
best but as through a glass darkly. At the very highest we 
are only children in things spiritual, and do not know how to 
put them together, nor how to draw the mighty circle of ever- 
lasting and universal truth. Yet, though we can not give the 
bounds and the outlines, we believe that we are coming into a 
glorious likeness to our Maker ; unto higher powers ; unto no- 
bler disclosures ; unto a more blessed residence ; to behold, in 
glory, the very face of God. 



502 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



NOVEMBER 22: MORNING. 
Pour out your heart before him. — Psalm Ixii., 8. 
Who shall prescribe to you the mode of expressing devotion ? 
Your soul finds its own channel, and employs its own words. 
No man may step between you and her to whom you love to 
say, " Speak thus, and only thus." And if it be so when we 
meet our mere companions and equals, how much more is this 
royalty of liberty when the soul goes rolling back toward God, 
and would fain express its sense of love and gratitude in the 
presence of divine realities ! Who shall tell the soul how to 
speak to God ? Who shall tell my child how to come and 
throw its arms about me ? What tyrannic school-master shall 
stand in the door when my daughter would rush to me, after a 
long separation, with sobs and silence, to say, " I love ;" or, with 
laughter and glee, to say, "I love;" or, with words well meas- 
ured and outpoured, to say, " I love ?" The soul asks no inter- 
preter ; it is its own interpreter, and no man may stand in its 
way and say to God what it wants to say. 

NOVEMBER 22: EVENING. 

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, 
to them who are the called according to his purpose. — Rom. viii., 28. 

How many of us have come to a conviction of this truth — 
this declaration of the working together of all things for our 
good ? I will not ask how many of you can say with Paul, that 
mightiest of the sons of the Church, U I know.'''' Out of the 
midst of suffering, he emerged to declare, " I know that all 
things work together for good." Tears dropped from his eyes 
like rain ; every single sense of his body ached with depriva- 
tion and persecution ; he was looked upon as the offscouring of 
the world; he was beset by every conceivable mischief; yet 
still he cried, " I know that all things work together for good." 
How many of you have been led in the same way that Paul 
was ? There is no other tower like the certainty of God's care. 
It is a fortress that can not be mined or blown up with pow- 
der ; that can not be starved out or taken by storm ; that shall 



NOVEMBER. 503 

remain steadfast, and that shall make us rich. Christ hath 
chosen us, the apostle says, before the foundation of the world. 
Through the long-brooding ages the eye of Christ foresaw you. 
He has never left nor forsaken you. All the economy of your 
life has been administered by a sympathizing God for your good 
forever and ever. 



NOVEMBER 23: MORNING. 
Rejoice in the Lord always : and again I say, Rejoice.— Phil, iv., 4. 

A man who has been going in many courses must needs pass 
through the gate Of repentance and the baptism of sorrow ; but 
the popular impression, that to be a religious man is to enter 
upon a life of gloom, is false and pernicious. Ye are not come 
to tears or to sorrow, but to " the sound of a trumpet and the 
voice of words." Ye are come to triumph; to an illustrious 
company; to glorious heraldings. Ye are come to convoys 
and felicities, and radiant hopes and blessed fruitions. 

Lift up your heads, then, ye that are bowed down like the 
bulrushes ; ye that go sorrowing with long sadness marked on 
your features. Slander no more him who should be to you as 
.the Orient sky in the morning, glowing with beauty. To be a 
Christian is to be more cheerful than a man can be without be- 
ing a Christian ; and every Christian man ought, with the sweet- 
ness of his joy, with the clear radiance of his faith, and with the 
piercing beams of his experience, to make men about him say, 
" There is no life like a Christian life." 

" May not I cry, then ?" Yes ; just as the night does— and in 
the morning it is dew. There is not a flower that does not look 
sweeter for it. True tears make men beautiful. True sorrows 
are, after all, but the seeds out of which come fairer joys. Sor- 
row is only the labor-pain when a joy is coming into birth.. 

Pining souls, come nearer Jesus ; 

And, oh, come not doubting thus, 
But with faith that trusts more bravely 

His huge tenderness for us. 

If our love were but more simple, 

We should take him at his word, 
And our lives would be all sunshine 

In the sweetness of our Lord. 



504 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



NOVEMBER 23: EVENING. 

In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.— 
Eph.es. iii., 12. 

Oh that men might be delivered from the bondage of the 
law who live under the administration of the Gospel ! How 
many thousands there are who go with their heads bowed 
down, carrying their sorrow and sickness as if there had never 
been a Savior, as if there had never been a revelation of Christ ! 
They go to God in Christ Jesus just as they would have gone 
to God without a Christ Jesus. There are thousands of men 
whose judgment is continually convicting them of sin ; whose 
conscience every day is wounded ; whose inward life is bruised, 
and who do not know that it is the nature as well as the office 
of Christ to sympathize with them on account of their troubles. 
We are urged to come to him in time of need for aid. We need 
divine help ; not that we are to disown earthly help ; not that 
we are to relinquish the use of our own powers ; not that we 
are to despise the helpful sympathy of our fellow-men in the re- 
lations that they sustain to us ; but high above these, and as 
the foundation indeed from which these are replenished, stands 
the great Source of all comfort ; and the voice of God is speak- 
ing to us and saying, " Come boldly unto the throne of grace, 
that you may obtain mercy, and that you may find grace to 
help in time of need." 



NOVEMBER 24: MORNING. 
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith. — 1 Cor. xvi. , 13. 
There is many a candle that will burn in a room where the 
air is still, but flares, and flutters, and burns every way but the 
right way out of doors ; and there are many Christians who are 
able to have the pure flame of Christian life burn steadily if you 
only shield them, but if you move them about, and bring them 
in conflict with each other in circumstances of temptation, they 
show their weakness of Christian feeling. Grace is put in very 
poor vessels. We are very easily tempted, and we yield to 
temptations most easily. You lose your humility. You lose 



NOVEMBER 503 

your meekness, gentleness, and charitableness. You lose your 
patience. If you mean to maintain these Christian states of 
mind, you must pray and you must watch. You must take 
heed every day and every hour. You can not watch once for 
all. Oh, if beyond this world honor and immortality are before 
you; if, when you shall have passed through these shifting 
scenes of the present life, you expect to enter the kingdom of 
God, then indeed you must watch. The heavenly inheritance 
will not come to you by chance. It must be obtained by your 
labor, quickened by God's grace, and stimulated by God's truth. 

NOVEMBER 24: EVENING. 
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee : because 
he trusteth in thee. — Isa. xxvi., 3. 

We can only attain this great gift of perfect peace by the 
accepting of God's will in place of our own, as being wiser, 
more beneficent, more renewing, and sure to lead to happiness. 
We are not able to attain it by occasional seeking. It is to 
those who stay themselves on God — who give their souls over 
entirely to him — who have planted themselves, as it were, in 
Gocl, and abide in him. This perfect peace, in the midst of all 
the turmoils of life, is to be the result of a steadfast trust in 
God. 

How shall I speak of the experiences of those with whom 
God makes his abode ? I know not how. I only know that 
there are times when trouble is rainbowed ; times when, as 
storms are full of nourishment to the earth, trials are full of 
nourishment to our faith ; times when it seems as though the 
eternal world came before us, leaving rich treasures in our na- 
tures; times when immortality means vastly more than it is 
generally understood to mean ; times when the hope of salva- 
tion in Jesus Christ affords a comfort to the soul which naught 
on earth can give ; times when the experiences of the closet 
and the meditations at eventide impart a joy and rest only sur- 
passed in heaven itself. Such times are illustrations of how it 
is that God gives peace to those whose minds are stayed on him. 

Oh, come and see ! oh look, and look again ! 

All shall be right ; 
Oh, taste his love, and see that it is good, 

Thou child of night ! 



506 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

Oh, trust him — trust him in his grace and power- 
Then all is bright ! 

Then shall thy tossing soul find anchorage 
And steadfast peace ; 

Thy love shall rest on his ; thy weary doubts 
Forever cease ; 

Thy heart shall find, in him and in his grace, 
Its rest and bliss. 



NOVEMBER 25: MORNING. 
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.— Phil, ii., 5. 

To be a Christian is to be in your sphere what Christ was in 
his sphere. He circumscribed himself, bowed down to the cap- 
tivity of the human flesh, and submitted to the hated death of 
the cross ; and he says, " As my Father hath sent me, even so 
send I you." He does not ask you to go to the cross, but he 
does ask you to take this as the idea of your life — namely, the 
supreme serving of others. Now, can you give every thing you 
have achieved, and every thing you possess in this life, that you 
may be like Christ ? If needful, can you give life itself that 
you may be like him ? He sought not his own pleasure, but 
went about doing good; and he said, "My meat .is to do the 
will of him that sent me." Unless you can do this, and say 
this, then the offense of the cross is the same to you that it was 
to the Jews. 

I beseech of you, be willing to suffer — to bear the yoke — to 
deny your own self. Let your whole being come under the 
supreme direction of God, that you may be changed into the 
image of Christ, who forgot himself in his efforts to benefit oth- 
ers. Follow his example while you are called to labor here be- 
low, and then, at last, you shall stand in Zion and before God ; 
and you shall be satisfied, because you will be like him, and 
will, therefore, be able to see him as he is. 

NOVEMBER 25: EVENING. 

If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto this sycamine- 
tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea ; and it 
should obey you. — Luke xvii., 6. 

When you want true religion, when your soul hungers for 



NOVEMBER. 507 

it, you will find it. When you cry out for God, he will cry 
out for you. There was never a heart homesick for heaven 
that heaven was not homesick for it. Never did a soul long 
for God that God did not long for that soul. There is not one 
thing that you need— not one single victory over wrong, not 
one single virtue, not one single triumph of a better desire over 
a baser one — that, if you put into it faith, Christ does not say 
to you, " If you have as much as a grain of mustard-seed, you 
shall pluck out the worst thing, and cast it into the sea." 

Oh blessed promise ! oh sweet revelation of truth ! oh divine 
and ever-to-be-adored declaration of mercy ! that there is stored 
in every one that victorious power by which we are able to sub- 
due the enemy that is in us, and rise into the spiritual realm, 
and become worthy to be called the children of God. 



NOVEMBER 26: MORNING. 
Continue in prayer. — Col. iv., 2. 
One of the hinderances to growth in Christian life is lack of 
deep and continuous devotion. This is either from the want 
of a sense of the great spirit-world on whose border we live 
perpetually, or it is the result of excessive occupation, which 
crowds all the time, and prevents one from ripening in a true 
Christian devotion. There is an utter liberty granted to every 
body in respect to his mode of devotion, but there is no liberty 
as to whether he shall or shall not be devout, and worship from 
day to day. A flower might just as well attempt to get along 
in summer without the dew that falls upon it, as a Christian 
attempt to live without daily communion with God. An eagle 
that can not fly, a nightingale that can not sing, a vine that 
can not bear grapes, a flower that can not blossom — that is a 
heart that does not pray and does not love to pray. 

NOVEMBER 26: EVENING. 
I go to prepare a place for you..— John xiv.,2. 

Having lived much in the West, I have seen many emigrants 
arrive there, who, on account of poverty or misfortune, or from 



508 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

the hope of bettering their already comfortable circumstances, 
were in search of homes in that region ; and I have seen them 
huddled on the thoroughfares in bleak weather, strangers 
among strangers, and I have thought that their reception must 
have made their new home most dismal. If dying was to be 
thrust out of life, and to emigrate to a land where we have no 
friends, where there are, none that know us and where we know 
none, it would be a sad thing indeed. But if our names are 
known in heaven, if they are written in the Lamb's book of 
life, and if Jesus Christ has ever been our Head, our Leader, 
our Mediator, administering in our behalf and preparing a place 
for us, that where he is there we may be also, then heaven will 
be familiar to us, and dying will not be so much to be deplored. 
After this life is over, heaven will seem to us like home. Al- 
ready it begins to draw us. Our losses fly up there and be- 
come riches. If the cage-door lets out our warbler, the woods 
get him, even if we lose him. We hear him singing afar, even 
if he will not return to our hand. So we give to heavenly 
fields what we lose from earth. And the belief that in heaven 
our fathers have long dwelt, that we are going there, and that 
ouf names are there known and affectionately called, is com- 
forting indeed. 

I've been thinking of home, of the loved ones there, 

Dear friends who have gone before, 
With whom we have walked to the death-river side, 
And sadly thought, as we watched the tide, 

Of the happy days of yore. 

I've been thinking of home — yea, "Home, sweet home!" 

Oh there may we all unite 
With the white-robed throng, and forever raise 
To the Triune God sweetest songs of praise 

With glory, and honor, and might ! 



NOVEMBER 27: MORNINO. 
No man can serve two masters. — Matt, vi., 24. 

When the nights are long and the days are short, we have 
the stern certainties of winter ; when the days are long and 
the nights are short, we have the sweet, genial hours of sum- 
mer ; but when the days and the nights are about alike, and 
the equinox comes on, and light and darkness strive for the 



NOVEMBER. 5 09 

mastery, that is the time for storms to rage. So, in Christian 
experience, so long as the night is the longest you have the 
peace of darkness, and when the day is the longest you have 
the peace of light ; hut when the night and the day are of about 
the same length, and they strive to see which shall rule, that is 
the time for storms. The hardest way to live is to be half a 
Christian and half a sinner. The easiest way to live is to he 
wholly a sinner or wholly a Christian. Harmonize on one side 
or the other if you want quiet ; take the middle ground if you 
want gales. But when victory once begins, then every thing 
works for you — God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, invisible forces ; 
and not only these, but visible forces. As the conflict goes on, 
time itself works for men, weakening their passions, so that the 
very process of growing old in body is but growing young in 
soul. 



NOVEMBER 27: EVENING. 

Fear not : for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee hy thy name ; thou 
art mine. — Isaiah xliii.,1. 

What path is there that brings not those that are wise to 
thy feet, O blessed one of the pierced hand and wounded side ! 
And who that has ever come to thee in real need, and lifted up 
the heart, and cried out, does not desire to come again ? It is 
the memory of thy graciousness, it is thy tenderness, which to 
us is more than a mother's and more than a lover's, that brings 
us again and again. Thou invisible Presence, thou mute but 
mighty Comforter, unspeaking, and yet of blessed converse, 
how hast thou turned the night into day to us ! How hast 
thou given us strength for weakness ! How hast thou snatched 
victory out of defeat ! How hast thou given us exaltation in 
the midst of temptation, and lifted us above our adversaries, 
and set our feet in strong places, and put a song of rejoicing in 
our mouth ! Oh how many escaped souls can lift up voices in 
praising thy faithfulness and thy tender mercies toward them ! 
How many there are over whom the waves would have gone 
if it had not been for thine outstretching hand ! How many 
were foundered when thou didst come to them walking on the 
wave ! How many can say that thou art their Savior ! How 



510 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

many souls, at the mention of thy name, are as bells struck, 
and full of sweet sounds that utter thy praise ! Thou art the 
new and living way of God — not the way of our reason, nor the 
way of our resolution, nor the way of our strength, nor the way 
of our skill. Thou lendest thyself to every needy soul. 



NOVEMBER 28: MORNING. 
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of 
the world. — Gal. iv., 3. 

" "What is right ? What is it my duty to do ?" — this is the 
spirit of the first stage of Christian experience. We forbear a 
thousand things because we ought not to do them. We per- 
form many things that have no sap in them to our taste be- 
cause we ought to do them. We keep or refuse days, we keep 
or refuse ordinances, from a bare sense of right or wrong, as the 
case may be. We struggle up to a choice, and say, " Thank 
God, I have a victory !" We put the wrong behind us, but it 
is by a perpetual effort. We are at the oar, and every inch 
that we make upon the i*iver of life is one that we pull for. We 
have no current yet, and very little wind of inspiration to drive 
us along. 

Out of this stage, sometimes by one history and sometimes 
by another, people emerge into a second one, and a very much 
higher one — one in which they have heard Christ saying to 
them, " Henceforth I call you, not servants, but friends." They 
have been God's hired men ; they have been working on his 
farm ; they meant to work all the time ; they gave him the ad- 
vantage of all that they possessed ; they were faithful to his 
property ; they attempted to be good, honest workmen and 
servants of the Lord Jesus. But there comes a time when 
they are called out of the field and out of the cottage into the 
mansion — into that stage in which love and hope become the 
true motive-power, so that they have all the trust, all the famil- 
iarity, and all the power that comes from love ; and they have 
all the buoyancy, and cheerfulness, and hope that comes from 
the future. This it is to be no more a servant, but a son. 



NOVEMBER. 511 



NOVEMBER 28: EVENING. 
For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in 
them that perish. To the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to 
the other the savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things ?— 
2 Cor. ii., 15, 16. 

In nature, one of the most remarkable and subtly beautiful 
ways in which things interpret themselves to us is by their 
odor. We know flowers by their effect on the sense of smell ; 
and fruits in the same way. Not only that, but the change in 
traveling from the .hill-top to the valley is indicated by odors. 
Men at sea know that they are drawing near to land from the 
land-breeze which they smell afar off. "We know we are in the 
presence of orchards or near harvest-fields because we perceive 
their odor in the air. We know there is buckwheat, even if it 
is over the hill so that we can not see it. The odor of it comes 
to us. We know in the morning that there is mignonnette in 
the garden, and in the evening that there is a bed of petunias 
there, by their odor. We know by its odor that there is a hay- 
field in the neighborhood, and that there is clover in it. . 

Now the apostle declares that a Christian man, by the sub- 
tle, exquisite exhalation of feeling which he shows forth, mani- 
fests Christ. The voluntary deeds of a real, living, vital Chris- 
tian — the thing that he means to do, the elements of his whole 
life — are so pervaded with Christ that men, on coming into his 
presence, say, " It is Christ ! it is heaven !" This Christian in- 
fluence is a savor of life unto life to some, and a savor of death 
unto death to others, according as they are affected by it. 
Righteousness is a sword of defense or destruction ; and men 
that hate purity feel that it is poisonous and deadly, while men 
that love purity feel that it is life-giving and joy-imparting. 



NOVEMBER 29: MORNING. 

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwell- 
eth in you?— 1 Cor. iii., 16. 

No sooner is the Sun of Righteousness below the horizon 
than all the mists and miasmas seem to gather about the hu- 
man soul. Those days on which you have been the most tempt- 



512 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

able, the most unhappy, the least hopeful and courageous, have 
been the days when by your circumstances you have sunk out 
of the sphere and light of the Holy Spirit. Then it was that 
you could not bear your burdens. Then it was that you were 
tempted either to break your sword, or, like Saul, to fall on it 
and slay yourself. Then it was that you said, " All my life past 
has been nothing, and all my life to come will be vanity." 

But you have had other times ; times when it seemed to you 
that you could sing; times when there were songs in your 
house in the night ; times when death had no terror to you, 
and when your feet seemed to walk on the mountain tops, and 
you scorned the low places of the earth ; times when, under the 
influence of the divine Spirit, your soul was stimulated, and you 
walked in the higher ranges of Christian experience. There are 
days when you have no cares and burdens ; when you have em- 
inent beatific visions ; when you feel that your soul is going on 
to greater and greater liberty all the time. No man is more 
shackled and burdened than one who attempts to live a Chris- 
tian life by the natural use of his reason just below the stimu- 
lating power of the Spirit of God. There is no life that is more 
fruitful, more bountiful of blessings every day, than a Christian 
life by which we live so near to God that we are perpetually 
pervaded by the divine influence, lifted up step by step, and 
blessed in overmeasure. 

NOVEMBER 29: EVENING. 
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 
seen. — Heb. xi.,1. 

Christianity opens beforehand the soul's life and its coming 
glory ; and there be many witnesses on earth who know that 
the life to come is even more familiar than the life that is. How 
many there are who, being sick, are not sick, by reason of that 
everlasting health in which they believe ! How many there 
are who, being poor, are rich, because of those riches which shall 
not fade away, and which no thief shall break through and 
steal ! How many there are who, being cast down, are not de- 
stroyed ! Who are the men that bear the trials of life best ? 
Not the men who are the strongest made ; not the men most 
largely endowed with the elements of prosperity in this world. 



NOVEMBER. 513 

There are thousands of poor, obscure, outcast persons who have 
more heroism, more endurance, more joy in the midst of trouble 
than such as these. They are sustained, not by hope of reward 
here, but by a certainty of remuneration there. Evils one after 
another make battle against them, but break and recede as do 
the waves of the ocean that dash against the shore. The sight 
of the unseen ; the reality of the unreal ; the substance of the 
unsubstantial; the invisible pitted against the visible — this it 
is that enables men to endure with patience whatever trials 
they may be called to pass through in this world. If a man 
has faith, and if faith is the evidence of things not seen, and if 
the unseen things are the throne above, the realm of heaven, 
the immortality of his soul, and his reunion to all that are near 
and dear to him, and to the whole saintly host of the blessed, 
why should he not be able to bear trouble patiently, and over- 
come the world, and be stronger in his weakness than it is in 
all its strength ? 



NOVEMBER 30: MORNING. 

And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the 
woman; yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? 
— John iv., 27. 

There is no one toward whom you can show the spirit of 
Christian brotherhood and fidelity that you will not meet by- 
and-by, where you will see that you worked better than you 
knew. I have heard of somnambulists that rose in the night 
and sat themselves down at their easel, and painted with that 
mystic fidelity and skill which belongs to abnormal, or, rather, 
unknown conditions of power ; and when the morning light 
came they rose and looked upon their easel, and said, " Who 
hath wrought this ?" It was their own work in the hours of 
the unknowing night, and in the morning they beheld it and 
marveled. 

My dear brother, you are a somnambulist walking in this 
darksome vale, and by every touch that you put upon the poor, 
and needy, and weak, you are working out a portrait ; and when 
the bright morning of the resurrection comes you will be struck 
with amazement, and will say, " "Who hath wrought this ?" and 
Kk 



514 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

with ineffable joy Christ shall say, "This is your art, taught of 
me, copied from my love, inspired by my fidelity ; and inasmuch 
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it 
unto me." Every single tear, every single prayer, every single 
act of fidelity which you have bestowed upon the weak and the 
poor, you will see rising and making the character of Christ 
and the glory of God more eminent ; and God will say, " Ye 
did it unto me." 

Work on ; be patient ; be believing ; hope ; hope to the end ; 
and then go to your reward. 

But when at his dear hands we seek 

Some lofty trust for him to keep, 
To our ambition, vain and weak, 

How strange his bidding, ' ' Feed my sheep. " 

" Too mean a task for love," we cry ; 

Remembering not, if in our pride 
We pass his humbler service by, 

Our vows are by our deeds denied. 

NOVEMBER 80: EVENING. 
He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall 
present us with you. — 2 Cor. iv., 14. 

A wise foresight of death gives unity, consistence, and steady 
purpose to the whole of our life, now scattered into details, or 
gathered together like a sand-heap in which the particles are in 
juxtaposition, but not in union. He who thinks from day to day 
that death is but a handbreadth ; that death comes to termi- 
nate this life, and then begins the other, the eternal and the real 
life, can not but find not only that it will minister to wisdom 
and prudence, but that it will soften many hard places and re- 
lieve many sharp sufferings. 

If one thinks wisely of death, not only will it not be a fear and 
a terror, but it will be a guardian angel. There is no thought 
sweeter to those who believe in Christ than the thought that he 
will bring them from the dead, even as he was raised from the 
dead. There is no thought in which with more joy men bathe 
their fevered brow than the thought " ere long I shall die ; I 
shall go forth from this struggle ; from this strife of tongues ; 
from this bitterness ; from this injustice ; from this partial life ; 
from this unmanliness. It will be but a little while before I 
shall 2:0 forth and be at rest." 



DECEMBER. 515 



DECEMBER 1 : MORNING. 

Thou hast set all the borders of the earth ; thou hast made summer and 
winter. — Psalm lxxiv., 17. 

Did you ever search out how much is said in the Bible about 
ice, and snow, and hail, and cold, and wintry storms? Did you 
ever make it one of the ways of rendering Sunday pleasant to 
your children to sit down with them and set their nimble fin- 
gers and memories to work to cull from the Word of God allu- 
sions to these things ? Did you ever make the hour short to 
them by gathering together all the use that the Bible has made 
of this season of the year ? You will be surprised yourselves 
to see how much there is in it ; and how exquisitely beautiful a 
part it is. 

I thank God for every wintry storm that drives men into the 
house, and keeps them there, and makes them liye together. I 
thank God for the necessity that there is of providing for win- 
ter all through the summer. I thank God for the influences of 
winter in developing an economy that brings out the affections 
of our natures, and makes the heart deep, and sanctifies the rea- 
son. If winter did no more than to accomplish these things, 
independent of its natural results, it would be a blessing for 
which we could never praise God enough. 



DECEMBER 1 : EVENING. 

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry noth- 
ing out. — 1 Tim. vi. , 7. 

The things that mean the most, the things that do the most, 
the things that are the springs and master motives of activity 
here — none of these shall we ever carry forth. All the fine 
lands and the noble mansions on them ; all the shops, and man- 
ufactories, and the various wares and fabrics that issue thence ; 
all the stores, and store-houses, and what they contain ; all the 
ships and the things they bring ; all the ship-yards and what 
they build ; all the sumptuous palaces ; all the long streets of 
marble ; all the stores of books ; all the galleries of pictures ; 
all the spires and domes; the whole whirl of business and the 



516 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

fruits thereof; all things on the soil, on the pavement, on the 
roof, or in the open air ; all that now inspires desire, excites in- 
dustry, and absorbs the life of man — of all these things not one 
single one goes forth. 

We live in a vain show. These things are the only verities, 
the only realities to us in this life ; but their purpose ends here. 
They are not carried to the eternal world. They perish with 
the using. They are but machines. The thing made by them 
is character. 

In the great manufactories at Lowell and Lawrence are to be 
seen, not colors, but dirty dye-vats ; wool rather than thread, or 
thread rather than fabrics. Now this world is a great manu- 
factory, and all physical things are but the stationary engines 
and looms. Our life, as it were, is placed in the loom, and wov- 
en. It rolls up, and is hidden as fast as it is woven ; and it is 
to be taken out of the loom only when we leave this world. 
We shall see the pattern of it only when we abandon the 
things which act upon us here. 



DECEMBER 2 : MORNING. 
I am come a light into the world. — John xii., 46. 

What are the aspirations and yearnings, the vague and aim- 
less feelings of the human soul, but the tendency of man to find 
himself in his God ? He knows that there is something in spir- 
itual life, though he knows not how to call it. He has an un- 
defined assurance that there is something more, something bet- 
ter than he has yet attained. There hangs over man the dark 
cloud of self-reproaqh. There is something that rebukes him 
for his lowness and weakness. He has longings after purity, 
and nobleness, and rectitude. Every man has at times feelings 
of aspiration that he can not express in words. 

It is one of the offices of the divine Spirit to produce in man 
that for which he yearns. Christ says, "I am the bread of life," 
and the desire of the soul is fed in those that feed on him. He 
says, " I am the light of the world," and he teaches men not to 
go looking for life in their own undeveloped natures, but to seek 
it in him. He says, " I am come that ye might have life, and 
that ye might have it more abundantly." It was the mission 



DECEMBER. 5! 7 

of Christ to bring himself to men, that they might open up to 
themselves their own beings, and fulfill in reality all those 
vague yearnings and aimless Teachings forth which belong to 
human experience. 

DECEMBER 2 : EVENING. 
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by 
the ear, neither hath the eye seen, God, besides thee, what he hath prepared 
for him that waiteth for him. — Isaiah lxiv., 4. 

Throughout the Bible it is declared that the things that we 
are permitted to see in this life are but intimations, glimpses of 
what we shall see hereafter. "It doth not yet appear what we 
shall be." „ There are times when it seems as though our cir- 
cumstances, our nature, air the processes of our being, con- 
spired to make us joyful here, yet the apostle says we now see 
through a glass darkly. What, then, must be the vision which 
we shall behold when we go to that abode where we shall see 
face to face ? Into what a land of glory have you sent your 
babes ! Into what a land of delight have you sent your chil- 
dren and companions ! To what a land of blessedness are you 
yourselves coming by-and-by ! Men talk about dying as though 
it was going toward a desolate place. The past in life is alone 
toward gloom ; all the future in life is toward glorious sun rising. 
There is but one luminous point, and that is the home toward 
which we are tending, above all storms, above all sin and peril. 
Dying is glorious crowning ; living is yet toiling. If God be 
yours, all things are yours. If Christ be yours, all heaven is 
yours. Live while you must, but yearn for the day of consum- 
mation, when the door shall be thrown open, that the bird may 
fly out of his netted cage, and be heard singing in higher spheres 
and diviner realms. 

Oh happy, holy portion, refection for the bless'd, 
True vision of true beauty, sweet cure of all distress'd ; 
Strive, man, to win that glory ; toil, man, to gain that light ; 
Send hope before to grasp it, till hope be lost in sight. 



DECEMBER 3 : MORNING. 
Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. — 1 Cor. vii., 24. 
Every man's first duty as a Christian is in the calling in 



518 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

which God's providence has placed him. We are, as it were, 
to permeate our avocation and our relations with the Christian 
spirit in such a way that our daily duty shall be itself a means 
of grace. 

I think every physician should find in his duty as a physician 
the means both for nourishing his own body and for doing good 
to his fellow -men. I think that every lawyer should not be 
obliged to go out of his office and turn the key in order to find 
his God. He should carry himself in his profession as a minis- 
ter of justice and peace; and instead of finding him quarreling 
and wrangling, we should find him administering his daily trust 
and duty with the feeling that he is serving both God and man, 
and that he is made more fit for secret communion by the very 
work he is performing all day long. Every merchant and banker 
should find in his daily avocation that which nourishes his con- 
science, his reason, his spiritual forces. Every woman should 
find in the cares of the household that which should be an al- 
moner of piety to her. Every child should find himself lifted 
up and made better by his association with children. Every 
one going to school should find in his duties as a scholar not 
only the cultivation of his intellectual powers, but also food for 
his religious life. Wherever you are, there begin the battle ; 
there subdue every thing that stands in conflict with the law 
of conscience, of purity, and of truth. 

DECEMBER 3 : EVENING. 
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.— Heb. x., 22. 

Not only has every Christian a key to the kingdom of heaven, 
but every one of pur moral sentiments or feelings has its own 
special key, with which it has a right to open the door of God's 
privy chamber and go in unto him. What is the feeling that 
animates you? Is it conscience, carried in accordance with 
God's truth and spirit ? Then by it you may go boldly before 
God. Is it faith that irradiates the soul, that brings light from 
the heart clear up to heaven ? Then, as angels went up and 
down the sacred ladder, so by faith you may ascend into the 
very presence of God. Is it hope that fills the soul? To hope 
is given also the watchword, and it may go to God without 
hesitation. Is it love ? Love is a universal commoner ; it may 



DECEMBER. 519 

go every where, carrying bounty immense and universal, and 
only bounty. Is it want, that knows not how to speak a word ? 
In heaven and before God the tears of want are louder than on 
earth are the loudest thunders. Whatever it is in the soul that 
would fain draw near to God for relief, it may go to him boldly 
and with confidence. There were telegraphs before Morse in- 
vented batteries or lines of wires. The longest telegraph ever 
made is that between the heart of God and suffering humanity. 
Every one who has a want is a battery ; every want is a wire ; 
every tear sends a message to the central deposit of all peti- 
tion, God's heart, whence come back mercies quicker than re- 
turn messages are ever received by earthly telegraphs. 



DECEMBER 4 : MORNING. 
Whosoever will be cMef among you, let him be your servant.— Matt, xx., 27. 
Love serves, and can not help it. A person that truly loves 
another always longs for something to do for that other, and 
the harder it is the better. The more unexpected and the more 
uncalled for the service, the more declarative is that which love 
always wants to make an exhibition of — its intensity. Love is 
self-sacrifice ; it is service. Now the gauge of religion, is the 
intensity and the productiveness of the love principle. He is 
the greatest, and is growing most into the likeness of Christ, 
not that has the most scope intellectually ; not that is the most 
fertile in his moral nature ; not that is the most rapturous in his 
emotions ; not that sings with the most spirit and understand- 
ing ; not that prays with the most devotion, but that has the 
strongest and finest current of disinterested benevolence ; and 
this is the spirit of Christ's declaration, " Whosoever will be 
chief among you, let him be your servant." 

DECEMBER 4 : EVENING. 

The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty ; the Lord is clothed with 
strength, wherewith he hath girded himself : the world also is stablished, 
that it can not be moved.— Psalm xciii., 1. 

Faith in God's immutableness gives us confidence in times 
of trouble and confusion. The Lord God sits on the circle of 
the earth. The hearts of men are in his hand, and he turns 



520 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

them as rivers of water are turned. God is the Father of na- 
tions. There is no possible fantasy, or error, or deceit that is 
not perfectly familiar to him. There is not a road of prosper- 
ity or of adversity that he does not know. There is not a path 
that nations have ever trod, or that they ever will tread, with 
which he is not acquainted. The same God that took care of 
the children of Israel when flying from their oppressors ; the 
same God that walked with them in the desert forty years ; the 
same God that led them to the promised land ; the same God 
that was in Jerusalem when Christ walked its streets, and that 
in the darkness of crucifixion yet saw light, even when his 
thorn-crowned Son saw none ; the God of those that in every 
age have sealed their faith with blood; the God of Luther and 
Cromwell ; our father's God ; the God of all the earth — does he 
not see ? and will he not do right ? And are there, in heaven, 
in hell, or on earth, any that are cunning enough to outwit 
him ? He has appointed the road, and we shall walk on it and 
triumph, not because we are strong, but because the Lord God 
Almighty will not change, and will accomplish the thing where- 
unto he hath set his hand. Trust in God. 

A sure stronghold our God is he, 

A trusty shield and weapon ; 
Our help he'll be, and set us free, 

Whatever ill may happen. 
Still is he with us in the fight 

By his good gifts and Spirit. 
E'en should they take our life, 
Goods, honor, children, wife, 
Though, all of these were gone, 
Yet nothing have they won — 

God's kingdom ours abideth. 



DECEMBER 5 : MORNING. 

And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a 
pillar of stone : and he poured a drink-offering thereon, and he poured oil 
thereon. — Gen. xxxv., 14. 

There are what are called " memorial windows" in churches. 
Such windows are often put in by affection, to be the memorial 
of a wife, or sister, or parent, or child, or friend. Now every 
body ought to have a church somewhere for himself; not a lit- 
eral church, but some place where he can celebrate God's special 



DECEMBER. 521 

goodness to him. Suppose, when God spares the life of your 
child, you should say (if you are blessed with the means), "I 
will make this significant by finding an orphan child, and I will 
make my benefaction to that child a perpetual memorial for the 
life of my dear child." Or, has God taken away your child — 
that sweetest girl ? As you lay her in the grave, you will need 
no memorial of her. Yet the hand of God was in this event. 
Why should you not set apart something to signify your sense 
of God's presence with you in your affliction ? Oh, if men 
should write their sense of God's goodness to them on the ta- 
bles of living hearts, how, in one's lifetime, the whole commu- 
nity would be filled with significant testimonies to God's good- 
ness, and his presence either in trials or in joys ! 



DECEMBER 5 : EVENING. 
I am not alone, because the Father is with me. — John xvi., 32. 

No Christian need be lonely. There are a great many times 
when persons are, as respects human sympathy and fellowship, 
alone ; but the discouraged preacher in the extreme village on 
the edge of the wilderness, who has not within a hundred miles 
of him a brother minister with whom he can exchange, need 
not be alone. The layman who goes from the comforts and 
•conveniences of the older states may fortify himself against the 
discouragements of the newer states. The poor widow who 
has nothing to give of property, and who, therefore, would fain 
give instruction to the neglected children round about, but who 
has none to help and none to encourage her, is not necessarily 
alone. All laborers are at times covered with the shadow of 
discouragement because they seem to be alone and without 
sympathy ; but never, never need you be alone. 

Remember the history of the prophet's servant when he felt 
that the prophet was in danger, and the prophet prayed that 
God would open his eyes, and he opened them, and the whole 
heaven was filled with chariots and horsemen of God. More 
are they that are for you than they that are against you. The 
heaven is full; the earth is. full. If you have not failed to ac- 
cept this great treasure, you are rich indeed, and never lonely. 



522 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



DECEMBER 6 : MORNING. 

For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory 
of God by us.— 2 Cor. i., 20. 

The word of God is filled with assurances of blessings. No 
book was ever so characterized by the element of promise. 
There are threats not a few, but I think promises greatly out- 
number them, as if it were the divine wish to draw us by hope 
rather than drive us by fear. Promises cover the whole period 
of human life. They meet us at our birth ; they cluster about 
our childhood ; they overhang our youth ; they go in companies 
into manhood with us ; they divide themselves into bands, and 
stand at the door of every possible experience. You can not 
bring yourselves into a condition for which I can not find in 
God's word some promise. There are promises of God to the 
ignorant, to the poor, to the neglected, to the burdened, to the 
oppressed, to the discouraged, to the solitary, to the imprisoned, 
to the sick, to the heart-broken, to the remorseful, to the weak, 
to the strong, to the timid, to the brave, to every one of life's 
exigencies, to every sphere of duty, to all perils, to every temp- 
tation that waylays good men in their journey. There are prom- 
ises for joy, for sorrow, for victory, for defeat, for adversity, for 
prosperity, for those that run, for those that walk, for those who 
can only stand still. Old age has its garlands as full and fra- 
grant as youth. The sick, the dying — all men, every where 
and always — have their promises of God. 

DECEMBER 6 : EVENING. 

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that 
loved us. — Rom. viii., 37. 

When the rude ox or the fierce wind has broken off the 
shrub and laid it down on the ground lacerated and torn, it 
lies there but a few hours before the force of nature in stem 
and root begins to work ; soon new buds shoot out, and before 
the summer shall have gone round the restorative effort of na- 
ture will bring out on that shrub other branches. And shall 
the heart of a man be crushed, and God send sweet influences 



DECEMBER. 



523 



of comfort from above to inspirit it, and that heart not be able 
to rise above its desolateness ? 

What sorrow is there that has God's liberty to ride you as a 
despot ? What bereavements did God ever give liberty to be 
your tyrant ? What laws did God ever give leave to come to 
you and say, " I own you ?" You are God's, and no one else's. 
And there is no suffering, no sorrow, no human experience, that 
you have not the power to rise above, to subdue — nay, to har- 
ness to you and make carry you. For sufferings rightly under- 
stood are, as it were, God's coursers harnessed to your chariot 
to bear you up. Horses and a chariot of fire did the prophet 
have to take him to heaven ; but he is not the only one that 
went to heaven in a chariot of fire. Thousands are riding in 
chariots of fire. Sorrow is the fire ; and troubles are those 
coursers by which myriads of men are being drawn in that 
flaming chariot heavenward. 

Spices crushed their pungence yield, 

Trodden scents their sweets respire ; 
Would you have its strength revealed, 

Cast the incense in the fire. 

Thus the crushed and broken frame 

Oft doth sweetest graces yield ; 
And through suffering, toil, and 
From the martyr's keenest flame. 

Heavenly incense is distilled. 



DECEMBER 7 : MORNING. 

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and 
everlasting joy upon their heads : they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sor- 
row and sighing shall flee away. — Isaiah xxxv.,10. 

The day will come when we shall stand disembodied — that 
is, free. We shall stand by sight and by sense in the great 
spirit realm. We shall behold trooping from afar ranks, or- 
ders, degrees of grandeur and excellence. We shall see worlds 
bearing hither, in all this vast and ever-congregating multitude, 
their contributions to the riches of the realm of God's whole 
creation. We shall see, rising above them all in sweet sim- 
plicity and in the rapture of love, Jesus, the crowned Lover, 
whose heart bled, and bleeds, for us — the wine of our victory 
and the »food of our life. Above every name on earth and ev- 



524 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

ery name in heaven our Lover stands, and we are safe. Take 
hold of that Messed name. Gather up all fragmentary excel- 
lences, and fashion to yourself some conception of that Savior. 
Yearn toward him, love him, and follow him. Hear him say, 
"If ye love me, keep my commandments." If you can not 
keep them perfectly, try to keep them, and he will take the en- 
deavor for the deed, and will undertake to keep you. Do not 
merely let his name be upon you outwardly, but let his spirit 
be upon you inwardly. And then, when " the ransomed of the 
Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting 
joy upon their heads," you shall be of their number, and shall 
forever and forever be present with the Lord. 



DECEMBER 7 : EVENING. 

But God eommendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, 
Christ died for us. — Rom. v., 8. 

The word of God comes to us, not as righteous persons, but 
as sinners. Christ says explicitly, " I am not come to call the 
righteous, but sinners to repentance." "They that be whole 
need not a physician, but they that are sick." When, there- 
fore, the promises of God were made to this world, men were 
not a choir of pure beings from which God drank in sweet 
strains of heavenly music. The music of this world has been 
for the most part in a minor key. This choral globe has 
groaned and travailed in pain until now. God knew the fallen 
condition of the race, and his promises were made explicitly to 
sinful men. When he wrote to you, do you suppose he thought 
you an angel? He knew well that you were not. He knew 
that the world was full of men tempted and temptable. He 
knew that men were in a world of sin, themselves sinners. He 
sent his Son to you because you were in peril, and because, un- 
less there was divine rescue, there would be universal ruin. 
And shall a man say, " I can not plead the promises of God be- 
cause I am sinful ?" Therefore plead them because you are sin- 
ful ; therefore plead them because you are wicked ; therefore 
trust them because, though you are bad, God is good, and the 
nature of goodness is to relieve want, even though that want 
be founded on sin. 



DECEMBER. 525 



DECEMBER 8 : MORNING. 
They made me the keeper of the vineyard, but mine own vineyard have I not 
kept. — Sol. Song i., 6. 

Who that remembers his life, or even a part of it, is not op- 
pressed with its obligations ; and, if a man analyzes his life, he 
will be still more impressed with these obligations. Take the 
history of your reason. What can you show as the fruits of 
that royal faculty ? If you were a husbandman, and were put 
in charge of a piece of land, you would keep a record of the 
harvests, and could give an account of your stewardship. Now 
God has given you that ample field of intelligence, and what 
can you show as the result of the years you have had the til- 
lage of it ? What capacity for working out blessings for our- 
selves and others has God given us in our affections ? Have 
we wrought out through them a result at all answering to that 
capacity ? Although, in looking back upon our career, we can 
find some things that afford us satisfaction, has not our life been 
like a tree or an orchard that bears here and there an apple, but 
that on many of its branches has nothing but leaves ? 

And shall we meet the Master so, 

Bearing our withered leaves ? 

The Savior looks for perfect fruit : 

Shall we stand before him sad and mute, 

Waiting the word he breathes, 

" Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves ?" 



DECEMBER 8 : EVENING. 
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Bar- 
barian, Scythian,bond nor free : but Christ is all and in all. — Col. iii., 11. 

Hav3 you been attempting to live a Christian life ? and yet, 
when you have examined your interior consciousness, what have 
you found to be the drift of your life ? Have you not sought to 
get rid of care, and been impatient under suffering ? Have you 
not been inclined to get away from people because they vexed 
you ? Have you been patient with men ? Have you borne with 
their faults as Christ bears with yours ? Have you carried their 
burdens as Christ carries yours ? Have you ever coveted the 
privilege, as a part of your religious duty, of silently suffering 



526 MORNING AND EVENING ENERGISES. 

for them ? It seems to me that Christ has brought us a crown, 
and men have desired, as it were, with pincers, to pull out every 
thorn, and they have put it on, and said, " Am I not like Christ ?" 
But Christ's crown had thorns in it — has yours ? When you are 
pierced by the thorns of trouble, do you not almost impute in- 
justice to Providence? Do you not ask, "Why should I suf- 
fer?" Do you not say, "What have I done that God should so 
afflict me ?" 

Consider Paul's view of suffering. " To you is given" — this 
is the language of one who confers a reward ; thus a monarch 
honors a well-beloved subject — "To you is given" — what? an 
order? an office? an estate? no — "to suffer with Christ" "If 
we suffer with him we shall reign with him." He shall reign 
who has worn the crown of thorns. 

Disciple, oh be not afraid, 

I only prove thy trust ; 
Perfect through suffering I am made, 

And so my followers must : 
Tis thus my power and glory shine, 
And thus I prove thy love and mine. 
• Gold in the furnace thou dost try, 

And so do I try thee : 
Eenew, refine, and purify, 

To live and reign with me — 
A polished, pure, and perfect gem, 
A diamond for my diadem. 



DECEMBER 9 : MORNING. 
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. — 
Psalm cxix.,18. 

There are promises in God's Word that no man has ever 
tried to find. There are treasures of gold and silver in it that 
no man has taken the pains to dig for. There are medicines in 
it for the want of a knowledge of which hundreds have died. 
It seems to me like some old baronial estate that has descend- 
ed to a man who lives in a modern house, and thinks it scarce- 
ly worth while to go and look into the venerable mansion. 
Year after year passes away, and he pays no attention to it, 
since he has no suspicion of the valuable treasures it contains, 
till, at last, some man says to him, " Have you been up in the 
country to look at that estate ?" He makes up his mind that 



• DECEMBER. 527 

he will take a look at it. As he goes through t'he porch he is 
surprised to see the skill that has been displayed in its con- 
struction ; he is more and more impressed as he goes through 
the halls. He enters a large room, and is astonished as he be- 
holds the wealth of pictures upon the walls, among which are 
portraits of many of his revered ancestors. He stands in amaze- 
ment before them. There is a Titian, there is a Raphael, there 
is a Correggio, and there is a Giorgione. He says, "I never 
had any idea of these before." "Ah !" says the steward, " there 
is many another thing that you know nothing about in this cas- 
tle;" and he takes him from room to room, and shows him 
carved plate and wonderful statues, and the man exclaims, 
" Here I have been for a score of years the owner of this estate, 
and have never before known what things were in it !" 

But no architect ever conceived of such an estate as God's 
Word, and no artist, or carver, or sculptor ever conceived of 
such pictures, and carved dishes, and statues as adorn its apart- 
ments. Its halls and passages can not be surpassed for beauty 
of architecture, and it contains treasures that silver, and gold, 
and precious stones are not to be mentioned in connection with. 

DECEMBER 9 : EVENING. 

There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man ; 
and there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge 
me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while ; but afterward he said 
within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this wid- 
ow troubleth me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary 
me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God 
avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long 
with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.— Luke xviii., 2-8. 

What is the argument ? This was a judge neither moved by 
a sense of divine rectitude nor by a spirit of human sympathy, 
and it seemed as though he was completely shut up to injus- 
tice ; and yet there was a place in which the mind of the poor 
widow could reach his. She could affect him by an importuni- 
ty which would make his life a burden to him if he did not 
grant her request. The motive was the lowest which could en- 
ter into even such a bad mind as his, but he was accessible to 
that. His mind was covered over at the top, it was walled up 



528 2I0RNINO AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

at the sides, and there was no entrance to it till you got to the 
bottom ; but, even as low as that, there was a place where she 
could get at it. His was the worst kind of a mind ; the mind 
of God is the noblest mind ; and the contrast in the parable is 
this — if, when you take the worst man you can find, there is a 
way of getting at his mind, then, when you implore God, who 
is the noblest and best of all beings, shall his mind not be ac- 
cessible to every royal attribute ? It is accessible to his elect 
at every point from the top to the bottom. Though he may 
tarry long, though he may take his own infinite leisure, he will 
avenge them. God is not a being that draws himself apart 
and out of the reach of persuasion. He is one that is suscepti- 
ble of being influenced by other beings. Any sound doctrine 
of prayer necessitates the implication that the nature of God's 
mind is such that other minds have power upon it — not to cause 
him to do things that he would not do of his own accord, but 
to cause him to do them with more gladness than he otherwise 
would if left to himself. 

Thy Word has commanded my prayer, 

Thy Spirit has taught me to pray, 
And all my unholy despair 

Is ready to vanish away. 

Thou wilt not he weary of me, 

Thy promise my faith shall sustain, 
And soon, very soon shall I see 

I have not been asking in vain. 



DECEMBER 10: MORNING. 
Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing 
to pray for you : but I will teach you the good and the right way.— 1 Sam. 
xii.,23. 

If one of your children should come to you begging for fruit, 
or for some article for his own personal gratification, you might 
be disposed to grant it to him ; but suppose one of them should 
come to you and plead for another child, and tell what his 
troubles were, explaining why he ought to be indulged, would 
not the generosity of the child open your heart ? Would you 
not feel a double obligation to grant the request, first, because 
the thing was proper for the child, and, second, because it 
pleased you to have this disinterested importunity? And, 



DECEMBER. 529 

when we come before God, he loves, no doubt, to hear us plead 
for our own wants, for wants are not necessarily selfish because 
they are sought for one's self; but when we plead for others 
there is an element of magnanimity, there is a grace in it which 
God, it seems to me, must love, and be more inclined to favor 
than petitions in our own behalf. 

Things that are emergent, things that are indispensable — 
succor, relief, rescue from destruction — God hears prayers for 
these things ; but I think God is accustomed to hear prayers 
for things that are not so outwardly and apparently needful — 
for the higher elements of Christian character ; for the endow- 
ing of ourselves with sentiments. When we plead for persons 
that are hungry that they may have bread, or for persons that 
are sick that they may be restored to health, that is well ; but 
when we pray for the growth of the soul, that humility may 
be more golden in its shades, that love may be more radiant in 
its higher lights, that faith may be more crystalline and far- 
reaching, and that there may be a refinement of piety and a 
delicacy of religion, I think God loves to hear our supplications. 

DECEMBER 10 : EVENING. 
Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do ? Jesus 
saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? follow 
thou me. — John xxi., 21, 22. 

There is a place in Christ's kingdom for all dispositions. 
Bring what you have. Though your gifts are of the lowest, 
and your activities are of the least importance, bring them. It 
does not need that you should be first in order to be accepted. 
It may be that you are like Martha, who brought to Christ's 
service much activity and but little depth of thought and feel- 
ing. It may be that your duties are mostly of a physical na- 
ture. If so, let them be consecrated, and Christ will accept 
them at your hands. It may be that an outward life of activ- 
ity and usefulness, such as you see in others, seems to be with- 
held from you ; but remember that there is such a thing as an 
externally inactive life that means more than one externally 
active. 

There be many who envy those that have gifts of external 
service ; that say, " Oh, if I had access to men ; if it were per- 
li 



530 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

mitted to me to persuade them; if I had the tongue of an ora- 
tor or the pen of a poet ; if I could go about doing good in this 
world, how grateful I would he to God !" It would be your 
duty to be grateful if you had these gifts ; but remember that 
there -are other ways besides this declaratory and exkibitory 
way of doing good. If you are, in the depths of your soul, rev- 
erencing and worshiping God, then you stand higher than one 
who merely has the capacity to do outward work. There is 
many a poor, obscure parishioner who has neither eloquence 
nor oratory, but the offering of whose heart God sees to be 
more priceless than these things. It is not that which makes 
the most impression on men that makes the most impression on 
God. It is that which is deepest in your conscience, and love, 
and faith, that is the noblest offering. 



DECEMBER 11 : MORNING. 
Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. — Exod. xiv., 15. 

Never forget that it is not enough for you just to have been 
born again. It is not enough for you to have set your faces 
toward Jerusalem. It is not enough for you to overcome the 
common sins and to attain the common moralities. A great 
growth, a noble manhood lies before you. There is a magnifi- 
cent experience possible to every one. It is not possible in 
equal degrees to all, but in some degree it is possible to every 
one. There is not a soul that may not reach this later and 
more glorious disclosure of divine grace. And if, in the provi- 
dence of God, you seem to yourself to be hindered, debarred ; 
if you seem to have been blown off the coast by the dreary 
winds ; if you, as it were, are storm-beaten, and have lost your 
mast, and roll as if to founder in the sea, do not be discouraged. 
" Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every 
son whom he receiveth." 

DECEMBER 11 : EVENING. 
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved : he that keepeth thee will not slum- 
ber. — Psalm cxxi., 3. 

There is a cup that every body must drink ; there is dark- 



DECEMBER. 



531 



ness for every one ; there is a Gethsemane for every human 
creature with or without. Christ; there is a night, a period of 
sadness and sorrow. You must have your troubles and trials. 
No man lives or can live without them. There is a time when 
the firmest hopes grow insecure, when the sweetest pleasures 
cease any longer to please. Have you made any provision for 
that hour ? Is there between your souls and Christ's a sacred 
union ? Do you now call him your Father and your Savior ? 
Have you laid your head upon his heart? Have you given 
yourself so to God that if he forgets you he forgets himself? 
Have you laid yourself in the arms of his love by the confi- 
dence of your faith, so that you are a child of God ? Then, if 
you have, give yourself no thought for to-day, nor for to-mor- 
row, nor for any time, for they that trust in God are surround- 
ed, as Jerusalem was, by mountains that shall not be moved. 
There is no security like that which they have whom God loves 
and watches, and who is to them in their prosperity like the 
sun, and in their adversity like the light of all the stars, to 
guide them in their night. God grant that it may be our lot 
to have this hope of God, as an anchor sure and steadfast, en- 
tering into that which is within the veil. 

Leave God to order all thy ways, 

And hope in him whate'er betide, 
Thou'lt find him in the evil days 

Thy all-sufficient strength and guide ; 
Trust his rich promises of grace, 

So shall they be fulfill'd in thee : 
God never yet forsook at need 
The soul that trusted him indeed. 
Who trusts in God's unchanging love, 
Builds on the rock that naught can move. 



DECEMBER 12: MORNING. 
And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing 
of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect 
will of God. — Rom. xii., 2. 

Beware of self-indulgence under the insidious forms of spir- 
itual experience. Beware of attempting to be happy by having 
happy feelings. Seek your happiness in the sphere of duty 
where God put you. I do not object to a man's being happy 
in his closet, but I think it is a suspicious circumstance where 



532 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

a man is happy nowhere else. I suspect him of being one of 
those selfish men that intoxicate themselves with spiritual feel- 
ings. According to all law and all ordinary experience, that is 
the soundest man, the truest man, who is happy, and extracts 
happiness where God put him, and every day. If there is any 
thing animal and low, it is eating and drinking. And yet we 
are told, "Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all 
to the glory of God." If you love Christ, you must find some 
way of doing it in the things of every-day life. If you have to 
run to get feeling to glorify God, you may be assured that you 
are badly instructed or greatly deceived. You must find your 
religious life to consist in deep religious feeling, animating ev- 
ery part of your ordinary life. There is no such thing as a sec- 
ular life as distinguished from a religious life. Religious life is 
the whole life imbued with all right feelings. It is the perfect 
man presented to God. 



DECEMBER 12 : EVENING. 

And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject 
to bondage.— Heb. ii., 15. 

How vividly I remember my boyhood. Oh that old church- 
bell, what woe it has smitten into my sensitive soul ! How 
the thought of the other life, and of my want of preparation for 
it, brooded over me like a hideous dream in the night ! At last, 
when I found who lived in the other life ; when I found that 
it was my Savior and my Friend ; when I found that he had 
taught me how to love him, that in his arms was salvation, that 
death was slain and destroyed, and that I was saved in him, how 
it was as if one, being in a far frozen zone, had gone to the tem- 
perate zones or the tropics. And for scores of years dying has 
had no fear for me. It has long since ceased to have any ban- 
ners of threat and warning in the sky for me. It is better to 
die than to live for him who is prepared to die. If I wished 
to send a child of mine into the world equipped for the battle 
of life, and wished him the highest joy and the greatest peace, 
I would say to him, " Clear the terror out of your future. See 
that you have a right to die with a crown on your head as a 
son of God, and not as a miscreant and a culprit. Prepare to 



DECEMBER. . 533 

meet thy God in youth. Trust him. Love him. It will take 
away fear from all your life, and make that life better worth 
having, more cheerful, more joyful. 



DECEMBER 13 : MORNING. 
And the Lord shall guide thee continually.— Isaiah lviii., 11. ' 

When we put our thoughts and affections upon God, we 
have an authoritative leader. "We no longer seek among men 
those who shall be our authority. We receive our heavenly 
Father to be our guide, and the rest of our life is settled when 
we have our direction fixed in God. 

When, for a whole week, the storm has blotted out all signs 
of the heavens, there is nothing the shipmaster would give so 
much to know as just where he is. He has lost no spar, he 
has lost no rigging, his sails are all good, but he is bewildered. 
Whether he is going on the shoal, on the rock, or on the coast, 
he does not know ; and if he could know where he lies, and in 
what direction he is going, he would feel secure. So, often in 
our life, to know which way to steer, to know where the end 
and aim of life is, to know who is our guide and pilot, that is 
itself rest and peace. Above all, we need an inspiration, an in- 
dwelling spirit that shall control, by a power outside of our- 
selves, the mind. When the power of God restrains our 
thoughts, guides our impulses, and inspires our affections ; 
when God dwells in us, working in us to will and to do of his 
good pleasure, how secure we then are ! 

DECEMBER 13 : EVENING. 
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they 
are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spirit- 
ually discerned. — 1 Cor. ii., 14. 

Unsanctified men can not read the Bible to profit. If you 
bring me a basket full of minerals from California, and I take 
them and look at them, I shall know that this specimen has 
gold in it, because I see there little points of yellow gold, but I 
shall not know what the white and the dark points are that I 
see. But let a metallurgist look at it, and he will see that it 



534 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. ' 

contains not only gold, but silver, and lead, and iron, and he 
will single them out. To me it is a mere stone, with only here 
and there a hint of gold, but to him it is a combination of va- 
rious metals. 

Now take the Word of God, that is filled with precious stones 
and metals, and let one instructed in spiritual insight go through 
it, and he will discover all these treasures ; while, if you let a 
man uninstructed in spiritual insight go through it, he will dis- 
cover those things that are outside and apparent, but those 
things that make God and man friends, and that have to do 
with the immortality of the soul in heaven, escape his notice. 
No man can know these things unless the Spirit of God has 
taught him to discern them. 



DECEMBER 14 : MORNING. 
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our 
Lord Jesus Christ. — Romans v., 1. 

When we become enlightened in respect to our own sinful- 
ness, and see how corrupt we are, the spectacle is enough to 
appal the stoutest heart. How can one who has made the 
most solemn confession of his sins before God, and then gone 
away and fallen into the same temptation and repeated the 
same sins, have the face to go right back and ask God to for- 
give them again ? How can one who rises with the sun, and 
makes the most solemn promises before God, and then before 
noonday breaks every one of them, go back at evening, and 
kneel down again and say, " O God, it is the purpose of my life 
to serve thee." It is hard for one, so long as he is conscious 
only of himself, to look up to God and say one word. It is not 
until we have such a consciousness of the glorious forgiving na- 
ture of God as to forget ourselves that we can have hope of for- 
giveness through Christ. There is something in the boundless- 
ness of God's generosity that gives a man hope. In God's love 
there is hope. In God's faithfulness there is hope. In your own 
there is none. The more you look at yourself, the more you feel 
condemned. I think that every right and well-founded Chris- 
tian experience comes in the end to this, " I am in myself un- 
worthy of God's thought, or love, or salvation ; but God is 



DECEMBER. 535 

good, and in him is my hope. The grace, and love, and sov- 
ereign mercy of God alone save me." 

DECEMBER 14 : EVENING. 
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly 
places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. — Ephesians 
iii.,10. 

"When God sets forth his manifold wisdom, what are to be 
the leaves of the book that shall be revealed ? Palpitating 
hearts are to be the leaves of that great book. From the be- 
ginning of the world to its last day men shall go up in orders, 
and every human soul that has lived and yearned for help, and 
received help, shall recite its experience, and it shall be an ex- 
perience manifesting the wisdom of God in this world. And 
every Christian will be a new page, a new history; not one 
written with ink nor cut in stone, but one that has been expe- 
rienced in the living soul. When God shall make manifest 
what has been his wondrous wisdom, martyrs, and confessors, 
and holy prophets and apostles, and humble Christians will rise 
up in thousands and tens of thousands, yea, in multitudes with- 
out number, chanting and speaking that wisdom. It is a glo- 
rious thought that it is to be made known thus, and not by any 
written book nor material thino-. 



DECEMBER 15 : MORNING. 

And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord. — Ephesians vi., 4. 

Do not discourage your children. When I have seen the 
way that we bring up our children, I have wondered that so 
many of them turn out well in spite of the infelicity of parent- 
al teaching and example. A child is made angry by some 
little thing, and the parent says, " Ah ! Mary, you joined the 
Church last Sunday; a pretty Christian you are !" The mother 
may grow red in the face a dozen times a day at some adult 
insult without rebuke ; but if the little child becomes excited, 
the parent turns upon it as fierce as a lion, instead of going to 
it in kindness, as Christ would have done. He would have hid 
it in his robes, and hushed its little heart, and kissed the child 



536 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

into love ; and then, when some calmness came back, he would 
have told the child what was wrong and what was right, and 
the child would have loved him better for his rebuke forever 
after. 

Be patient with your children. Because their life is not al- 
ways consistent, you must not think that they are insincere, or 
that God's grace is not doing its work for them as really as for 
you. God is said to gather the lambs with his arms and carry 
them in his bosom. You must bear your children in your bosom, 
and you must do it in spiritual things as much as in things so- 
cial and temporal. 



DECEMBER 15 : EVENING. 

The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that 
dwell therein. — Psalm xxiv., 1. 

It seems to me that we should regard the seasons, the year, 
and nature as something other than a mere storehouse for our 
material necessities. There is something in the world besides 
food to eat, clothes to wear, and fuel to burn. We are made 
to be something more than mere animals, and the earth is built 
to express something more than God's provision for our body. 
The whole globe is a sacrament, and time is full of the most 
solemn lessons and momentous truths. And yet we let day 
after day, year after year pass over our heads, and our constant 
thought is — what ? That the winter is severe, that the clay is 
inclement, that the rain incommodes our party or mars our 
pleasure. We sit in judgment upon the various events of the 
season with their reference to our selfish convenience. We 
fret, and fume, and pine. We gaze God's stupendous phe- 
nomena in the face, judging them by our miserable conven- 
ience. We are not only without thanksgiving and gratitude 
to God, but full of spite and ill feeling. 

Oh wide-embracing, wondrous love ! 

We read thee in the sky above, 

We read thee in the earth below, 

In seas that swell and streams that flow. 

We read thee in the flowers, the trees, 
The freshness of the fragrant breeze, 
The song of birds upon the wing, 
The joy of summer and of spring. 



DECEMBER. 537 



Oh love of God, how strong and true ! 
Eternal, and yet ever new ; 
Uncomprehended and unbought, 
Beyond all knowledge and all thought. 



DECEMBER 16 : MORNING. 
Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. — 
Psalm xxviii., 6. 

Remember the way of prayer. How often have we gone to 
the throne of grace asking and seeming not to receive ! When 
we look, in the time of struggle, at our prayers, often our faith 
is invalidated ; but when we look upon the whole of our life, 
and judge of prayer not specially, but generically — when we 
wait, giving it time for fulfillment, and working with our pray- 
ers, every true Christian man is convinced, sooner or later, that 
God has given him a harvest in answer to his prayers which he 
had no reason to expect. No man can look upon what he brings 
to the work of Christ, and what that work becomes in his hand, 
without being humbled in view of his own weakness, nor with- 
out being filled with admiration and reverence for that loving 
Heart that does exceeding abundantly more than we ask or 
think. 

DECEMBER 16 : EVENING. 
Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. — Jer. xxiii., 24. 
No person can live in the full enjoyment of Christian faith 
who can not carry God's conscious presence with him into the 
world, into his business, into his pleasures, every where. The 
human mind is so formed in adjustment with the great physical, 
natural world, that, if we are right with God, and rightly train- 
ed, every object in nature becomes suggestive of some moral 
quality, or some phenomenon in Christian life, or some spiritual 
truth or being. What is there that has not been appropriated 
and sanctified ? The mountains ; the cedars on them ; the 
clouds above them ; the birds in them ; the fields below them ; 
the brooks that flow from them ; the rocks that compose them ; 
the shadows which they cast; the refuge which they are in 
times of trouble and war ; all events, in the farming life ; all 
processes in the industrial life of civilized nations ; the sea ; the 



538 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

summer; the winter; the house; the magistrate; the judge; 
the father; the animals upon the earth and the fowls in the 
air; whatever there is all through nature — these things God 
has employed to convey to us some suggestion of the divine 
presence and of divine truth. 



DECEMBER 17 : MORNING. 
Ye will not come to me that ye might have life. — John v., 40. 
Is there any thing more piteous than the attempts of men to 
make themselves happy ? They say to themselves, " Oh soul, 
what ails thee ? What diet wilt thou have ? All the world 
shall be searched to obtain it. I have the means." And so 
they betake themselves to public affairs, and to those things 
that make a man honorable among his fellow-men, and achieve 
great successes in that direction. But the soul still weeps, and 
moans, and pines, and the man says to the soul again, " Oh soul, 
what ails thee ? Have I not given thee all that money and am- 
bition can bring ? Now, that thou mayest be quiet, I will feed 
thee on beauty." And he surrounds himself with the rarest 
pictures, and statuary, and works of art. But still the soul 
pines, and moans, and weeps. Again he says, " Oh discontent- 
ed soul, that will not be satisfied in the forum or in the gallery, 
where shall I go to find what will please thee?" And still the 
soul moans, and weeps, and pines. Alas ! you have presented 
all this aliment to the lower man, and to the real and higher 
man you have not given one particle of food. You are trying 
to feed your real, craving self with lower elements, and the soul 
gets nothing, and the man is starving, and pining, and crying 
out. You are seeking to make him happy, but you know not 
how. No man can be happy till he learns to find that happi- 
ness in things divine and eternal. 

DECEMBER 17: EVENING. 

Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then 
ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people : for all the earth is 
mine. — Exod. xix., 5. 

Are there not in all of you things that need to be changed, 
and that you have intended to change ? In your way of edu- 



DECEMBER. 539 

eating your children ; in your way of keeping the Sabbath ; in 
your way of treating those under your care ; in your way of 
conducting yourselves among your associates; in your habits 
of reading God's Word and of prayer ; in the whole carriage 
of your life, are there not many things of which you have said, 
" These ought to be changed ; this ought to be taken away ; 
this ought to be pruned, and this ought to be cultivated ?" And 
is it not time that, instead of waiting for the work to be done 
for you, you should form a distinct purpose, and say, "By 
the grace of God I will rise up and begin to walk ? I will do 
something myself." To every man who needs healing, Christ 
says, " Wilt thou be made whole ?" If you will, rise up and 
walk. He stands ready, the moment you take the first willing 
step, to help you. Thus you will get the blessing. Neglect to 
do this, and you will not receive it. 



DECEMBER 18 : MORNING. 

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. 
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the 
fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Bless- 
ed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou com- 
est in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. — Deut. xxviii. , 3-6. 

All right occupations, all duties, all daily fidelities bring 
along with them a divine presence. We are never alone. We 
are never doing things that are merely secular if we know how 
to make them divine. The most menial callings, routine occu- 
pations, things not agreeable in themselves, but necessary, and 
things of duty, all of them have, or may have with them a Christ. 
Where less than on the dusty road between Jerusalem and Em- 
maus, with their backs upon the Temple, going away from Je- 
rusalem, leaving the priests and all the ordinances behind them, 
could the disciples have expected to find their Savior? And 
yet there he walked with them. Though our life be the life 
of the scullion, though we be the errand-boy of pompous riches, 
though we be the menial of avarice, nevertheless, if rightly we 
discharge the duties of our sphere, not far from us is a Savior, 
and not far from us are divine blessings. 

If men did but know it, they are surrounded by the divine 



540 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

presence. In, all the varied play of every faculty, in all the 
places which every faculty leads the foot to, he is not far from 
any one of us. Oh that there were given to us this faith, by 
which we should discern God, not alone in the heaven above, 
nor alone ia the earth below, but every where ; by which we 
should make every mountain like Mount- Sinai, and every place 
like the Temple that is in Jerusalem. How full would life be ! 
how changed would life be ! how would temptation diminish in 
its force ! how would joy increase in its sphere, and how would 
we lift up our head that now is bowed down, and walk as vic- 
tors walk ! 

If, on our daily course, our mind 
Be set to hallow all we find, 
New treasures still, of countless price, 
God will provide for sacrifice. 

We need not bid, for cloistered cell, 
Our neighbor and our work farewell, 
Nor strive to wind ourselves too high 
For sinful man beneath the sky. 

The trivial round, the common task, 
Will furnish all we ought to ask — 
Room to deny ourselves, a road 
To bring us daily nearer God. 



DECEMBER 18 : EVENING. 

The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail.— 1 
Kings xvii., li. • 

Do you ever think, as you pass along the chapters of the 
Bible, that they are now like the king's highways ; that more 
saints than tongue could count have walked along these pages 
toward heaven ; that each verse has been a bosom like a moth- 
er's to some child in Christ ; that each verse has had in it bless- 
ings for multitudes of souls ; that these passages of hope and 
joy have made melody for thrice ten million struggling souls ; 
that these Scriptures are a sublime renewal of the miracle of 
the loaf which increases by using, and which feeds without dim- 
inution ? These unwasting chapters have supplied armies, and 
multitudes of faint and hungry saints, but there is not a parti- 
cle gone. There is as much yet for the famishing soul as when 
first they were set forth. To the end the loaf shall be broken, 
and shall yield a liberal abundance for every human want ; and 



DECEMBER. 54X 

to the end the undiminished whole shall remain a witness and 
a miracle of the divine spiritual bounty. 



DECEMBER 19 : MORNING. 
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be 
done away. — 1 Cor. xiii., 10. 

One generation lives, achieves, and dies, to transmit to the 
next the results which it has wrought out ; and so it is only the 
later generations that will give to men the fullness, or any thing 
like the fullness of their own lives. But, blessed be God, the 
work begun in this life will go on in the world to come. That 
which here has had a beginning, and only a rude beginning, 
will there be carried to final perfection. There is no evidence 
in God's Word that when we go out of life we are to undergo 
an instantaneous transformation by absolute power. There is 
no intimation of Scripture that there will not be successive 
steps of progress in the future life. . But oh, what different cir- 
cumstances, what facilities, what favoring influences, what hin- 
derances taken away, will reach us the first hour of our entrance 
into the land of spirits ! As to the rest that remains behind, 
we must go through various steps of progress before we can 
know what it is ; but of this we may be assured, that we shall 
behold a new heaven and a new earth, in which dwells right- 
eousness. "What a change we must undergo before this long 
experiment is worked out and we are brought home to glory, 
where, under God's own immediate tuition, we shall go on re- 
ceiving life forever and ever ! 

DECEMBER 19 : EVENING. 

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in per- 
secutions, in distresses for Christ's sake ; for when I am weak, then am I strong. 
—2 Cor. xii.,10. 

Defeat is the food that warriors live upon. It makes the 
nerves of a man full of life ; it makes a man at last invincible. 
Never be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as 
when you are defeated for the right thing. The Jews seemed 
to have vanquished Jesus when Judas imprinted the Jraitor's 
kiss upon his lips ; when, bowed beneath the cross, he took his 



542 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

funereal way toward Calvary ; when they lifted him up, and he 
hung suspended upon the tree, and groaned, and died, and the 
heavens were dark. Their victory was accomplished, and their 
everlasting defeat also ; for not until he died could he live for 
us, and we through him. So every thing that has the nature 
of Christ in it, every truth of God, every noble cause, is like 
Milton's angel, the gash that-is made in it with the sword closes 
up immediately from the healing virtue of its own nature, and 
it stands forth with infinitely greater power than ever before. 
Never fear to go with minorities for the right, or to suffer tem- 
porary obscuration, reverse, or defeat. 

For here we all must suffer, walking lonely 
The path that Jesus once himself hath gone : 

Watch thou in patience through the dark hour only — 
This one dark hour before the eternal dawn — 

And he will come in his own time and power, 

To set his earnest-hearted children free : 
Watch only through this dark and painful hour, 

And the bright morning yet will break for thee. 



DECEMBER 20 : MORNING. 
Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. — Rom. viii., 17. 

Whatever Christ has he has parted, as it were, and divided 
with us. We are " heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." 
All that there is of beauty, and richness, and sweetness, and 
grandeur, and authority in Christ is not simply something to 
which we are permitted to look, but it is ours. We have the 
same right in it that a child has in the dignity and elevation 
of his father. All that God has is mine. All that he is is mine. 
I am what I am by the grace of God. I do not stand in my 
own being. The sum of my richness is not what I have, but 
what I am to inherit. In the ineffable love of Christ, in the 
glory, and beauty, and grandeur of his nature, and in his eleva- 
tion of character, I have a part and a lot. He is my Father, he 
is my Brother, he is my Friend, he is my Companion, and shall 
be forever and forever. He shall lead me by the hand here ; he 
shall lead me by the hand through the valley and shadow of 
death, and I shall fear no evil. I shall meet the mysterious foes 
that people darkness and space, and say, " The Captain of my 



DECEMBER. 543 

salvation is victorious over all adversaries. I shall not fear to 
face the life to come, for I know whom I have believed, and am 
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed 
unto him against that day." 



DECEMBER 20 : EVENING. 

In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities 
be overpast. — Psalm lvii., 1. 

If God has sent afflictions upon you, whether they come from 
yourself or from your social liabilities — from your connection 
one with another — the golden gate that leads into the way 
which is pleasant, and into the paths which are peace, is an up- 
ward gate. The nearer you can get to God, the less any thing 
on earth can afflict you. That is one reason why prayer, even 
when men in their own consciousness are not Christians, is so 
soothing and quieting. In the act of lifting the soul up above 
its passions into the conscious presence of the Eternal, though 
it be blind, though it be the pleading of a child with an un- 
known Father, there is something that lifts a man in the right 
direction. But how much more when God is dearer to the soul 
than all the contents of earth ; when the soul can say, " There 
is none on earth like thee, and there is none upon the earth that 
I desire beside thee." Communion with God is prayer — oh, 
what a refuge out of trouble ! oh, what a pavilion in which God 
does hide men, according to his promise, until the storm be over- 
past ! Lift up your head. Find peace and comfort by giying 
flight to the higher elements of your highest nature — love, and 
faith, and hope, and joy in the Holy Ghost. There is the di- 
vine prescription ; and there never was a trouble so grievous 
that there was not, in this joy in the Holy Ghost, assuagement 
and peace. There never was a heart so smitten that there was 
not restoration in true Christian faith. 

And all these days of dreariness are sent us from above ; 
They do not come in anger, but in fraitfulness and love ; 
They come to teach us lessons which brightness could not yield, 
And to leave us blest and thankful when their purpose is fulfilled. 
They come to draw us nearer to our Father and our Lord, 
More earnestly to seek his face, to listen to his Word ; 
And to feel, if now around us a desert land we see, 
Without the star of promise what would its darkness be ! 



544 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



DECEMBER 21 : MORNING. 
Christ the power of God.— 1 Cor. i., 24. 
"What we want is not more knowledge. It is power that we 
want. And that is what they lack who deny the divinity of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. Their trouble is weakness. They are 
elegant, but they are soft. They are refined, but they are inef- 
ficient. They may in a thousand philanthropies be efficient; 
but show me a man who does not believe in the divinity of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and I will show you a man who can not take 
direct hold of the conscience or the soul of man, and shake 
him with the power of the judgment to come. The teaching 
of man's utter wreck and ruin, and of the power of love in the 
Lord Jesus Christ, takes hold of the imagination, dominates the 
reason, and goes clear down into the dungeon-depths of a man's 
passions. God can cleanse the heart ; man can not. And that 
God whom we can understand, is the God that walked in Jeru- 
salem, that suffered upon Calvary, and that lives again, having 
lifted himself up into eternal spheres of power, that he might 
bring many sons and daughters home to Zion. What man 
needs is a divine Friend, present with him, loving him, helping 
him, and pouring the actual tide of soul-influence in upon him ; 
and any thing that takes that away, takes away substantially 
the divinity and power which there is in Christ. 

DECEMBER 21 : EVENING. 

Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with 
the baptism that I am baptized with ? — Matt, xx., 22. 

Be not weary of well-doing. It is a slow work, and one that 
is often disagreeable. There is no good work that a man can 
do for the woi'ld without bearing his cross. You like to be 
honorable, and to sit on the right hand and on the left of the 
Savior, but you must drink his cup, and be baptized with his 
baptism. Even Christ could not save the world without yield- 
ing up his life, and neither can you. Living, you must die, if 
you would be memorable. Shrink not from the pain. It is 
but a little while that you will be called to bear it at most, and 






DECEMBER. 545 

if you suffer with Christ you shall reign with him. And oh ! 
one hour in heaven would compensate for all the suffering of 
earth. 

And I am his. Oh heart, be faithful still ! 

Still let him lead me as it seems him best ; 

With him to combat, or with him to rest, 
March, or encamp, according to his will. 

My Friend is mine, and I forever his : 

Himself he gave, myself to him I give ; 

In me he dwells, in him alone I live : 
Was ever union half so bless'd as this ? 



DECEMBER 22 : MORNING. 
Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. — 
Zech. iv., 6. 

Meist are like rivers in winter. Go and look at the Connecti- 
cut River to-day. It is frozen over. There is a flood of water, 
to be sure, but it is far down beneath the covering that hides 
it ; and every hour, as winter goes on, it is radiating more and 
more of its heat, and the crust grows thicker and thicker, 
though already it is so thick that business has taken posses- 
sion of it, and swiftly darts to and fro upon it. The river is 
under the dominion of ice, and can not free itself therefrom. 
The sun shines upon the superincumbent mass, yet so thick is 
it that the sun does not melt it. But by-and-by, afar off, the 
rains begin to descend ; for it is March. God's southern winds 
come beating against the northern cold; the clouds are con- 
densed ; they turn to showers ; they fall upon the hills or upon 
the mountains, and these all sweep down their treasures to the 
valley; and they ai'e borne along and emptied into the channel 
of the river ; and the ice, strongly buoyed, is lifted up and frac- 
tured into vast sheets ; and the freshet takes them, and, like a 
mighty mill, grinds them to atoms as it rushes along. And 
now, in this glorious and blessed resurrection, see how the 
water begins to rise, and send to the bottom that which has 
been its oppressor, till at last, after one, or two, or three days 
of such terrific conflict, though there may be on its banks some 
remains of the ice, you will see the emancipated and disenchant- 
ed stream flowing gayly on without crust or barrier. 

It is just so with men's souls. We need these freshets, these 



546 MOMNING AND EVENING EXEECISES. 

glorious overflowings of the channels of the soul,, to cleanse 
away wintry obstructions, to break up the habits, to clear us 
out, that the soul may be as the river of life, and that God's 
face may be reflected in the clear surface thereof. 

DECEMBER 22 : EVENING. 
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my 
mother and my brethren! — Matt, xii.,49. 

There is a place in each mother's heart for every child that 
is given her, and do you not suppose there is a place in God's 
heart for every child that he has created ? Do you not suppose 
that all men stand before him plain, and individual, and distinct ? 
Yes ; you stand before God as if there were not another man in 
the universe. As men stand before us without mistake of iden- 
tity, and as all that we think and feel of them we think and feel 
of them as individuals, so we stand before God, and all that he 
thinks and feels of us he thinks and feels of us as individuals. 
He calls every one of us by name, and he does it a great deal 
more than we know. How much does the child know of the 
thoughts of the mother who sings and rocks its cradle while it 
sleeps, and breathes its name ? When the child is gone from 
home for a visit or for school, how much does it know of the 
thoughts that are beaded and strung, pearl-like, before God, on 
its account, or of the frequency with which its name is uttered? 
If the child could follow its father's and mother's voice, in the 
closet and elsewhere, how often would it hear its own sweet 
name sounding all the way up to heaven ! And if this is so 
with earthly parents, may we not suppose, when we remember 
the boundlessness of God's love, that there is not a child of his 
on which he does not bestow special thought and attention ? 

Sweet thought, my God, that on the palms 

Of thy most holy hands 
Are graven all thy people's names, 

Though countless as the sands. 

Not one too mean to have his place 

Amid that record hless'd ; 
And if but there our names are found, 

We'll share the heavenly rest. 

How can we then yield to distrust, 

Or think we are forgot, 
While ever thus the care of one 

Who loves and changes not ? 



DECEMBER. 547 



DECEMBER 23 : MORNING. 
And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sin- 
ners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with 
publicans and sinners? — Mark ii., 16. 

How glorious is the manifestation of the divine feeling ! God 
is on the side of sinners for the purposes of rescue. Jesus sat 
at meat with publicans and sinners ; and, blessed be God ! it 
was not abstract, metaphysical sinners that he dined with ; it 
was real ones — those whose sins came from the basilar pas- 
sions, and were abominable before all men — so that no man 
should say that it was not for such that he came. Did it ever 
occur to you what must have been the carriage of him that 
spake as never man spake, that it should have lit the light of 
hope in the hearts of bad men wherever he went ? The con- 
viction which he wrought in their minds that there was help 
for them was not so much from what he said to them as from 
his carriage among them. "While he rebuked the proud, haugh- 
ty, and hard-hearted Pharisees, with what tenderness did he ad- 
dress those who stood in. darkness, and throw upon them the 
first ray of light, doubtless, that they had received from the 
day that they forsook their father's and mother's house. There 
is more beauty, more royalty, more divinity in the way in which 
Christ treated the poor sinning woman who knelt at his feet, 
than there is in the conception of God sitting crowned with 
light upon the white throne of the eternal heavens. 



DECEMBER 23 : EVENING. 

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen 
them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed 
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. — Eeb. xi., 13. 

If I travel all the weary day, knowing that I am going far- 
ther and farther away from home, and that no hospitable roof 
is to shelter me, and no friends are to greet me, and nothing is 
before me but the desert or the caravansera, then what is to 
cheer me on my journey ? It is sad from step to step. But if 
I am going home, though it be through thickets, or over rocks, 
or across the morass, and the heavens pelt storms upon me — if 



548 MORNING AND EVENING EXEECISES. 

I know that I shall ere long be under my father's roof, and re- 
ceive the greetings of father, and mother, and brothers, and sis- 
ters, happiness goes with me all the day long. And so, in hu- 
man life, he that thinks life ends with death, and that there is 
no life beyond the grave — what has he with which to meet the 
hatreds, the attritions, the troubles with which life abounds ? 
What has he to give him complaisance in looking forward to 
the period of death, which shall break all those links that bind 
man to man ? How can you bear the infirmities of life, the 
sufferings of the body, and the chafings of the soul which it is 
impossible to escape here below ? These things are so many 
light-fingered robbers, that filch perpetually something of our 
being ; and, if I have nothing but this life, spare me from it. 
It is not long enough if this is all that there is to me. It but 
kindles expectation, it but sharpens sensibility, it but renders 
me capable of greater misery. It can not satisfy my capacity 
for enjoyment. 

But oh ! if I have another life ; if God is mine ; if heaven is 
mine ; if all the noble redeemed in heaven are my elder breth- 
ren ; if every step here is carrying me nearer home — what to 
me are burdens and troubles ? I take refuge out of all present 
afflictions, I count them as dust, and as not worthy to be com- 
pared with the exceeding and eternal weight of glory that is 
to be revealed to me in the heavenly land. 

Jesus, still lead on, 

Till our rest be won ; 
And, although the way be cheerless, 
We will follow, calm and fearless. 

Guide us by thy hand 

To our fatherland. 

If the way be drear, 

If the foe be near, 
Let not faithless fears o'ertake us, 
Let not faith and hope forsake us ; 

For, through many a foe, 

To our home we go. 



DECEMBER 24 : MORNING. 
The love of Christ constraineth us. — 2 Cor. v., 14. 
We are not Christians until we rise so high that the moral 
sentiments are supreme. It is love in all its benignities and 



DECEMBER. 



549 



beneficences, it is faith in all its idealities and aspirations, it is 
hope in all its courage, and cheerfulness, and buoyancy, that 
constitutes Christian life. A man who merely does not do any 
hurt — is he a Christian ? A man that is simply harmless — is 
he a Christian ? No ! A Christian sparkles ; he is full of fire, 
but it is a fire that does not burn ; he is full of power, but it is 
a power that does not thunder ; he is full of life, but it is a life 
that develops itself in higher and not in lower forms — in things 
that go to make him a man in Christ Jesus. 

If you think that when Christianity comes into a man's soul 
it makes him smaller, you are mistaken. When Christianity 
comes into a man's soul it magnifies him; it enlarges him; it 
ennobles him. When you become a Christian you simply shift 
the balance of power, taking it out of the hand and putting it 
into the brain ; taking it out of the lower nature and putting it 
into the higher reason — into the love principle, and into the 
spiritualizing elements. When a man has changed the seat of 
authority, so that that which is above dominates, then he has 
become a Christian. 



DECEMBER 24 : EVENING. 

Fear not : for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be 
to all people. — Luke ii., 10. 

Christmas Eve ought to be a very joyful evening to us in 
all its associations, in all the* truths which it naturally brings to 
the soul. I have never felt as though the world were happy 
enough and joyful in its religion. Religion has not been, as it 
should be, a radiant thing. In its history on earth it has cre- 
ated a great deal of joy, and it has assuaged a great deal of 
suffering ; but, on the whole, the teaching of it and the profes- 
sion of it have not been characteristically joyful. At the same 
time, the spirit of true Christianity is the spirit of pre-eminent 
radiance, bountifulness, generosity, beneficence, and not the less 
because it bears burdens and carries yokes. It is — shall I say 
gay f Yes, if you employ the term in its higher sense — that 
sense in which it is applicable to the sphere of spiritual influ- 
ences. Rightly considered, religion is genial, hopeful, joyful, 
and should be sparkling, radiant. A man's soul is to be as the 



550 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

heavens were on the night when the shepherds looked up and 
saw them full of angels as well as stars. 

As I grow older, this is my experience. I do not mean that 
cares are fewer, that sorrows are fewer, that suffering does not 
abound in its own way and times, but this, that my constant 
thought of the divine throne grows sweeter. God seems to me 
more ample in goodness and infinitely more gentle. And, al- 
though I believe in the alternative justice of God — although I 
believe that he inflicts pain as the necessary means of the great- 
est good, yet, after all, the predominant conception which I have 
as I grow older is of the fatherhood of God, and the ineffably 
gentle mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. The nearer you come 
to the Lord Jesus Christ, the nearer you come to the true view 
of the Savior, the more joyful your Christian experience is ; so 
that, if a man could take his choice of all the lives that are pos- 
sible on the earth, there is none so much to be desired for its 
joy -producing quality as a truly self-denying, consecrated 
Christian life. This is my conviction, founded not only on my 
faith, but on my observation of men and of their lives ; and it 
is the testimony, I think, of God's people every where. 

All my heart this night rejoices, 
As I hear, 
Far and near, 
Sweetest angel voices : 
" Christ is horn," their choirs are singing, 
Till the air 
Every where 
Now with joy is ringing. 

Hither come, ye poor and wretched ; 
Know his will 
Is to fill 
Every hand outstretched : 
Here are riches without measure; 
Here forget 
All regret, 
Fill your hearts with treasury. 



DECEMBER 25 : MORNING. 

Unto you is bom this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the 
Lord. — Luke ii., 11- 

Go through the whole round of innocent social joys and fes- 
tivities, but let not your Christmas end with these. Is there no 



DECEMBER. 55 1 

temptation from which you seek deliverance ? and is there no 
Christ arisen to be the Christ of those that seek deliverance 
from temptation? Is there no bondage under which you have 
groaned? and is there no Christ that stands ready to release 
those who are under bondage ? Is there no grief that has 
weighed upon you ? and is there no Christ whose office it is to 
remove grief from those who are weighed down thereby ? Are 
you sitting in the region and shadow of death ? and is there no 
light to rise to him that sits in the region and shadow of death ? 
Is there no ambition to be restrained and regulated ? Are there 
no sins to be forsaken ? Are there no virtues that have long 
lain before you untried, but upon which you are about to en- 
ter ? Is there no work in your own disposition, no work in 
your family, no work in your business, no work in the world 
that has been waiting for the power of an inspiring Savior? 
While you think of the historic Savior, and celebrate his birth 
with accumulated joy, let there be a moral birth to-day for you 
of Christ in your soul, the hope of glory ; of Christ in your con- 
science ; of Christ in your love ; of Christ even in your secular 
calling. With new zeal, with new sincerity, with new conse- 
cration, let Christ be born in your heart. 

Welcome, oh my Savior, now ! 
Hail ! my portion, Lord, art thou ! 
Here too in my heart I pray — 
Oh, prepare thyself a way. 

As thy coming was all peace, 
Noiseless, full of gentleness, 
Let the same mind dwell in me 
That was ever found in thee. 

DECEMBER 25: EVENING. 

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping 
watch over their flock by night ; and lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, 
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. — Luke ii., 8, 9. 

I am struck, in looking through the New Testament, to see 
how few of the disclosures that were made of the mercies of 
Christ were made in churches — that is, in synagogues, or in 
temples, or in any places of worship. I am struck to see how 
the features of the disposition of Christ were made known to 
people who were occupied in their business; to the sick; to 
fishermen in their boats ; to travelers ; and, as on the night of 



552 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

his advent, to shepherds watching their flocks. In other words, 
we do not find Christ most signally in set ways and places ; but, 
while we are endeavoring all the time to live a Christian life, 
we are likely to have these disclosures in the shop, on the ship, 
in the midst of our avocations, every where, and under all cir- 
cumstances. A very present help is Christ, not only in time 
of trouble, but all the time and in all places. 



DECEMBER 26 : MORNING. 
Comfort yourselves together and edify one another. — 1 Thess. v., 11. 
"When we become Christians we are in some respects sadly 
like the clay model before it is fashioned — full of shapelessness ; 
growing in parts, little by little, with touches here and touches 
there, and gradually being developed into something. When 
men go into the Church of Christ they go as beginners ; they 
go as men that have found out the weakness and sinfulness of 
their lives, and that ask, "Are there ordinances, are there means 
by which a man who is weak and sinful can be supported and 
helped ?" And the door of the sanctuary flies open, and the 
voice of the minister sounds forth, " Come in hither ; here is 
God's curative Word ; and if any one feels weak, here he will 
find help ; if any one feels sinful, here he will find sympathy, 
and instruction, and influences to release him from sin and build 
him up in holiness." 

The slenderest threads, together wound, 

Will make the strongest band, 
And smallest rods, if closely hound, 

The bender's force withstand. 

But if we those asunder take, 

Their strength departs away, 
And what a giant could not break 

A little infant may. 

So if in concert we abide, 

If true in heart we prove, 
We may the more be fortified 

By interchange of love. 

DECEMBER 26 : EVENING. 
Giving thanks always for all things unto God.— Ephes. v., 20. 
Has thankfulness to God been in any proportion to the ben- 



DECEMBER 553 

efits received ? Has thankfulness accompanied every day's ben- 
efaction ? Has it been a common experience ? Has it tended 
to promote obedience ? Has it had the effect to make you sen- 
sitive to God's feelings and wishes ? The child of unnumbered 
kindnesses, the object of countless mercies, covered all over 
with memorials of God's tender thought and kind considera- 
tion, have these blessings of God, that have been from the heav- 
ens poured out copious as light, that have streamed from all 
the avenues of life abundant as the floods of the ocean — have 
these blessings of God ever brought forth in you a profound 
sense of recognition ? Have they ever made you yearn to re- 
quite God? Have they ever led you to considerations of the 
obedience and gratitude due from you to him ? Are we not 
despising the riches of God's goodness, and forbearance, and 
long-suffering, not considering that the goodness of God is lead- 
ing us to repentance ? Do you not need to-night to go before 
God in repentance ? For, when you arise at the last day, be 
sure that neglected mercies, that divine kindnesses that have 
excited no gratitude will rise up and be swift witnesses against 

you. 

The path I trod so pleasant was and fair, 

I counted it life's best, 
Forgetting that thou, Lord, hadst placed me there 

To journey toward thy rest. 

Forgetting that the path was only good 

Because the homeward way : 
I held its fullest beauty where I stood ; 

I thought these gleams the day. 

Forgive me that I, lookingTor the day, 

Forgot whence it would shine, 
And turned thy helps to reasons for delay, 

And loved not thee, but thine. 



DECEMBER 27 : MORNING. 
Thou gavest me no kiss. — Luke vii. , 45. 
It was the habit of the Old Testament saints and of the New 
Testament saints — it was the habit of religious men both before 
and after Christ — to indulge in much praise of God. They had 
such ready access to him, they had such sweet and joyous views 
of him, he was so near and precious to them, that there was ex- 
cited in them a continued desire to praise him ; and this feeling 



554 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

sometimes amounted to a desire to caress. If John laid bis 
head on the Savior's bosom once, you may be sure that he did 
it many times. Many instances show that Christ's familiarity 
with his disciples extended to caressing. And we have an in- 
timation that there is such a thing as the soul's caress of God 
— that a man may have such a sense of God's presence that his 
heart shall touch, as it were, the divine heart. Ascriptions of 
praise to God under such circumstances may be called a caress 
of words. 

DECEMBER 27 : EVENING. 
Suffer the little children to come unto me. — Mark x., 14. 
The slender hold which Christ has taken of our life is no- 
where else shown so much as in the wantonness of our grief 
and surprise at the death of our beloved ones. Why should 
they not die? God has appointed flowers for every period* 
Some are made to blossom in earliest spring, some in latest, 
some in early summer, some in midsummer. Many are ap- 
pointed for the autumn, and some God sets to put wreaths on 
the very brow of winter. In like manner, there are different 
periods of blossoming out of life. We know not what is the 
secret work that goes on within. Often babes and sucklings 
have more true symmetry o p spirit in them than old men. 
What tears we shed because God takes our children to bring 
up for us ! Whenever the golden gate is opened and our be- 
loved ones pass through, we^may be sad that we are left in the 
drear wilderness, but not that they have entered into the city 
of their coronation. 

We pass our nights in wakeful thought 

For our dear children's sake ; 
All day our anxious toil hath sought 

How best for them to make 
A future safe from care or need, 
Yet seldom do our schemes succeed ; 
How seldom does their future prove 
What we had planned for those we love. 
Thus saith my heart, and means it well, 

God meaneth better still ; 
My love is more than words can tell, 

His love is greater still : 
I am a father, he the Head 
And Crown of fathers, whence is shed 
The life and love from which have sprung 
All blessed ties in old and young. 



DECEMBER. 555 

DECEMBER 28 : MORNING. 

How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious I— 2 ConV 
thians iii. , 8. 

Walk in the midst of sunlight, and find me, if you can, one 
thing that is homely. The vine that has lost its leaves, and is 
without fruit or fragrance; the leafless tree; the bare post ; the 
dry stick; the moss-covered stone; the old tumble-down rook- 
ery — these are luminous and beautiful in the sunlight. 

The sun can pour beauty on things that have no beauty of 
their own, and there is nothing that has not the power to take 
beauty when poured upon it. And God makes the human soul 
that loves Christ to be filled with such a power of hope, and 
faith, and love, and joy, and enthusiasm, that when they pour 
it out on daily life it makes things luminous and beautiful. 

DECEMBER 28 : EVENING. 

According to the power of God, who hath saved us, and called us with a holy 
calling.— 2 Tim. i., 8,9. 

You are called to all the noble variations of moral sensibil- 
ity, to every depth of affection, to discipline, to enterprise, to 
all achievement. You are to make yourselves better, nobler, 
happier, that men may be won to your side. You are to make 
your companions better. You are to make the world better. 
You, who have put your first steps into the royal road, have en- 
tered upon such a life as this. The Lord, who has called you, 
will walk with you. He who has begun the work in you will 
complete that work in you. Be not afraid of temptations, that 
they will be mightier than your faith. With every temptation 
he will open a door of escape. Be not afraid that men shall 
harm you. If God be for you, who can be against you ? You 
are created by him. He has suffered for you. He has lain en- 
tombed, and he has come forth, perfected by suffering, to be the 
Captain of your salvation. 



DECEMBER 29 : MORNING. 
Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.— -Ephes. v., 19. 
How shall a man who is not mobile, who is not sympathetic, 



556 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

who is naturally calm, learn to praise ? Every man must do it 
according to his nature, of course. Some can learn to praise 
only in a low degree, others can learn to do it in a high degree, 
but according to his measure every person may learn the spirit 
of praise. 

So far as producing this spirit is concerned, I think nothing 
is so well calculated to do it as music. Singing is a means of 
grace, and those persons who are gifted with song, or those 
persons who can express their thoughts in the language of 
hymns, hardly need to ask how they shall learn to praise. 
Music and sacred hymns naturally go with Christian expe- 
rience. They were born out of it, and will live with it to the 
end of time, I suppose. And if Christians conferred with each 
other more with reference to God's goodness to them, and helped 
each other more to sing and to praise, their communion in these 
matters would go far toward forming the habit of praise in them. 

DECEMBER 29 : EVENING. 
His mercy endureth forever. — Psalm cvi., 1. 

Not a few in their last hours find themselves tried because 
the future is so uncertain, because their life has been so imper- 
fect, or because their attainments have been so small. When 
they think what God is in his purity and majesty, they trem- 
ble, and dare not die. Why, then, do they not think what God 
is in his mercy ? He stands in the plenitude of all-comforting 
grace — grace not to be given to those that have, but grace to 
be given as raiment is given to those that are naked, as medi- 
cine is given to those that are sick, as food is given to those 
that are hungry, as charity is bestowed on those that are needy. 
God supplies, not the supplied, but the unsupplied; he strength- 
ens, not the strong, but the weak; he comforts, not the rejoic- 
ing, but the sorrowing. 

You, then, that are in want, and, above all, you that are draw- 
ing near the appointed hour of departure from this world, why 
should you derive consolation from your past life ? Why should 
you find comfort in reviewing your own state ? There is no sat- 
isfaction in these things ? There is but one single view, it seems 
to me, on which a man can lie down and die without fear, and 



DECEMBER. 557 

that is this : " God loves me, because it is his nature to love ; 
God will save me, because it is by saving me that he will best 
please himself." If I go home to heaven, I shall go, not on the 
step-stones of my own virtue and goodness, but because I am 
attracted by the drawings of that Heart that suffered for me 
on Calvary, and that ever lives to intercede for me in heaven. 



DECEMBER 30 : MORNING. 
I will not leave you comfortless : I will come to you. — John xiv. , 18. 

I look back upon a life whose thwartings were my gains. 
My best successes have been disappointments. I should have 
been damaged, perhaps ruined, had I gained what I vehement- 
ly strove for. Sorrows that I shunned and joys that I sought 
changed places, and pain became pleasure, and grief gladness. 
My God has been to me a friend — more than any human friend 
— and he has done for me exceeding abundantly more than I 
asked or thought. I can only say that it is wonderful — the 
kindness, the gentleness, the wisdom that have been exercised 
toward me by my Savior in the administration of human affairs. 
And now, for the time to come, shall I refuse to let him take 
care of my concerns ? Shall I no longer trust in him who has 
so long been to me a faithful friend ? My God, this Christ Em- 
manuel— God with me — has sustained and comforted me in care 
and trouble, and taken away my fear, and put hope in its place, 
and I will look to him still. 

If you are in trouble of body or soul ; if the things on which 
you have leaned have broken ; if you want some one to comfort 
and sustain you, come to this Jesus. Do you know what be- 
neficence there is in the bosom of Christ for you ? I point you 
to the loving Savior, the sympathizing Savior, the all-pervading 
Savior, the ever-living Savior, who, having felt your mortal lot 
and borne the strokes of your punishment, stands at the sum- 
mit and source of all power, that he may be the Head of the 
Church, and your Guide, and the Captain of your salvation. 
Trust him. 



Kest of the weary, 
Joy f>{ the sad, 

Hope of the dreary, 
Light of the glad ; 



Home of the stranger, 
Strength to the end, 

Refuge from danger, 
Savior and Friend ! 



558 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 



Pillow where, lying, 
Love rests its head ; 

Peace of the dying, 
Life of the dead ; 



Path of the lowly, 
Prize at the end, 

Breath of the holy 
Savior and Friend ! 



DECEMBER 30 : EVENING. 
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wis- 
dom. — Psalm xc.,12. 

Have you ever seen in the harvest-field how the loaded wag- 
ons moved off? Methinks that months are sheaves of wheat, 
that days are separate stems, that hours are kernels, and that 
the year is the loaded wain. When the time comes, sheaf after 
sheaf is pitched up, and the cattle draw them to the barn from 
the field, and then the grain is threshed and winnowed. The 
growing is done, the crop is reaped and gathered, and the result 
can not be changed. This year is nearly reaped, and you have 
thrown up your bundles upon God's coursers of time, and the 
stars draw the load and sweep it toward the eternal granary. 
You can throw no tears back upon the year. It is gone, it is 
registered, and what the account is God knows. You may 
know in part, but not wholly. Oh ! it is a solemn thing to 
bid farewell to the contents of a year — all that your reason 
has done, all that your secular feelings have done, all that your 
religious feelings have done, all that your sentiments have done, 
all that your affections have done, all that your passions and 
appetites have done. What you have written on this year is 
now ineffaceable. It has gone to the judgment day, and it 
awaits you there. That can not be changed. 

But the coming year is before you an unwritten book, an 
unsullied tablet. See to it that you profit by the mistakes of 
the past and take heed for the future. I beseech of you, when 
the knell of the old year shall have sounded and the new year 
shall have come on, by God's grace, and under the influence of 
his Spirit, begin to walk upon a higher plane, with purer aspi- 
rations and in the discharge of nobler duties. And as it was 
with the prophet that saw the ladder that touched the earth 
and ascended into heaven, so let it be with you ; and let each 
year be as one added step, the bottom of the ladder beginning 
with time and, the top ending with eternity, and you with the 
angels ascending thereon to the very glory of God. 



DECEMBER 55 c 

'Tis not for man to trifle. Life is brief, 

And sin is here. 
Our age is but the falling of a leaf, 

A dropping tear. 
We have no time to sport away the hours ; 
All must be earnest in a world like ours. 

Not many lives, but only one have we — 

One, only one; 
How sacred should that one life ever be — 

That narrow span ! 
Day after day filled up with blessed toil, 
Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil. 



DECEMBER 31 : MORNING. 
We spend our years as a tale that is told. — Psalm xc, 9. 

Another year has passed. Its months and its weeks already 
are buried. Only days and hours remain. These are passing. 
One more sunrise only hath this year. To-morrow morning 
shall shine upon the face of a new year. 

Let us turn and bid farewell to the past and passing ; fare- 
well to its cares, to its burdens, to its troubles ; farewell to 
fears, and hopes, and griefs ; farewell to its yearnings, to its as- 
pirations, its wrestlings. They are gone. Farewell to many 
who waked the year with us — to the companion that was to us 
as an angel of God, and is now an angel with God. Farewell 
to the babe that was ours, and is God's, and therefore more 
than ever ours, though beyond the reach of our arms. But the 
heart tends it yet, and cradles it more vigilantly than ever. 
Farewell to our Christian brethren who have heard the trumpet 
before we have, and have gone forward. Year, thy march is 
ending ; thy work is done. Pass ! disappear ! We shall see thee 
no more until we behold thy record in the All-judging Day. 

DECEMBER 31 : EVENING. 

Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye 
think not.— Luke xii., 40. 

I caee not what the approaching year brings if it only re- 
sults in good. I care not though it may be undriven like a 
chariot whose driver has been thrown to the ground, if God 
only sits and holds the coursers of Time. If God is in the 



560 MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES. 

chariot, I care not what else is in it or around it. If God will 
take care of my thoughts and feelings ; if he will mark out my 
ways and lead me in them; if be will appoint my burdens; if 
he will send me stores sweetened with his love ; if he will give 
to my faith the vision of eternal life ; if be will touch and refine 
my affections ; if he will direct my aspirations toward the heav- 
enly estate — if he will do these things I shall be content, and 
shall rejoice in whatever scenes I may be called to pass through. 
I submit to the divine will. I take myself, my person, my life, 
my hope, my household, my companions in trouble and in la- 
bors of love, my children, my time, my influence, my relations 
to every work of God in the body — I take them all up, and say, 
"By thy grace, O God, in the past, I have been what I have 
been, and by thy grace I desire, in the future, to be what thou 
wilt have me to be. Glorify thyself, and I shall be satisfied." 

My dear Christian friend, can you take up every thing so? 
Come ! bear your cradle, and set it down before God, and say, 
" Lord, I resign it to thee." Come ! carry your store, and lay 
it at God's feet, and say, " Here, Lord, is what thou hast given 
me as steward ; it is all thine." Come ! bring your palpitating 
heart, with all its affections, and open them before the bleeding 
heart of Christ, and say, " Lord, for another year I carry these 
in trust of thee." Come ! take your jqys, and hopes, and as- 
pirations, and bring them to the Savior, and say, " Lord, I re- 
ceived these from thee, and I will trust in thee in days to come. 
Though thou slayest me, yet will I trust in thee." 

Can you so trust in Christ to-day? Can you so surrender 
yourself and all you have to him ? There is perhaps but a year 
for you to do it in. This may be your final victory or defeat. 
What you are to do for yourself, for your household, and for 
the cause of God, you must do quickly. Settle your affairs. 
Settle your life's labors and your eternal interests. You will 
soon be called to bid adieu to the scenes of this world. Of 
this one thing you may be sure — that line of conduct which 
will best prepare you to die will best prepare you to live. Live, 
therefore, so that, at whatever hour the Son of man may come, 
you shall be found ready. 



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